The Ninth Chevron
by Alveric
Summary: Their awakening memories, and attempts to discover a means of reaching Destiny and her crew, lead Sam and SG-1 to a greater understanding of the Ninth Chevron, and to more secrets left behind by the Alterans. Sequel to 'The Times That Weren't'. Cam/Sam
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am only playing in the world.

**The Ninth Chevron – Chapter 1**

McLean, Virginia, May 29th, 1978

Cam held the hot dogs in unsteady hands, the overly long frankfurters, slathered in both ketchup and mustard, bouncing slightly as he made his way away from the hub-bub of adults talking about incredibly boring things. For a bunch of Air Force officers they spent remarkably little time talking about planes. He found his destination down at the end of the long garden, behind a protective screen of bushes and trees, it was the bank of the small, burbling creek which wended its way slowly through the woods behind the property. She knelt by the creek, her skirt bunched up in one hand to keep it from getting wet or dirty, her other hand passing over the surface of the water, just brushing the tops of the ripples held steady by the motion of the liquid over the creek bed below. Her head came up and she turned it to face him, her blue eyes piercing him from behind the fringe of her sandy blonde hair. She was a puzzle. Direct, intense and blunt in one moment, then thoughtful, flighty and unfocused the next. As if the world was too slow for her mind. Still she didn't treat him like a kid even though she was older. He hated that. Which is probably why even if the adults _had_ been talking about planes he would still have wandered off. They could really get on his nerves sometimes. He especially hated being treated like a kid by other kids. Paul did that and he was only a year older than Cam.

"Finally! I'm starved!" she said, standing up and shaking the water from her hand. She held it out and he offered her one of the hot dogs. Despite being 'starved' she ate it slowly, delicately. Whereas he, as was natural for a young lad, wolfed it down with gusto, ketchup and mustard spilling down onto the sparse green grass under the shade of the trees. "You're so messy. And I bet you can't even taste it when you eat that quickly." Girl had a point, Cam had to admit to himself. He slowed down while eating the second half of his hot dog, though he knew he'd never eat as slowly as she did. Her father was one of the Air Force officers who had been at the ceremony when his Dad had received his medal. His parents had told him they were staying for a few days after the ceremony to attend this Memorial Day BBQ, hosted at the house of one of the higher-ups. A colonel if he remembered right. George something. He wasn't this girl's father, but the two were friends. He could tell. He thought he'd heard that they both worked together, and were trying to convince his Dad to come join them, but he knew his Dad wouldn't, he loved flying too much, and it sounded like they... 'flew desks' were the words his Dad had used. Not disparagingly, just stating a fact. The one thing his Dad said he'd never fly was a desk. Which sounded like an odd thing to say.

"If you want another one you'd better say so quick. Paul can eat twenty hot dogs no problem." he pointed out. He had no idea where the boy put it all though. He wasn't fat like the other kids who ate that much. The girl nodded, probably better acquainted with Paul than he was, living in the area as she did. He'd only met her today. She'd told him her name but he'd forgotten it, he usually forgot girls' names, they weren't any fun normally. She was though, she liked to talk about planes for one. She also liked to go running around the woods here in the back, checking out the creek and the bushes for stuff. She'd been the one to find that huge frog, though he'd caught it. They showed it to Paul but he didn't like it. He actually seemed to enjoy listening to the adults talking about all that boring stuff. "So how old are ya? I know you're older'n me."

"Mom says it's not polite to ask a lady her age." she replied but he'd already figured out that was the tone of voice she used when she was teasing him so he just grinned to let her know he'd caught her doing it. "I'm nine. My little brother is six." Cam didn't care about her little brother. Mark was less fun than most girls, and that's saying something of a six year old. Didn't like running or jumping or climbing. Didn't play football or basketball or soccer. Didn't do much of anything except hang around his Mom, glaring at his sister whenever she went to talk to her. It was kinda strange. She didn't seem to care too much, though Cam didn't like to see it, he didn't have a brother or a sister, so he thought if you had one you should appreciate them. She finally finished her hot dog, licking her fingers one by one. He didn't exactly know why but he enjoyed seeing that. She must have really liked the hot dog. "How about you? How old are you?"

"Just turned eight a couple of weeks ago." he replied wiping his hand on the side of his shirt, leaving behind a faintly greasy stain.

"Oh, Happy Birthday." she offered smiling.

"Thanks." he replied with a grin. She just nodded. "You want to be a pilot like your Dad, don't you?" She looked at him with those piercing blue eyes.

"Yeah." she replied slowly, she sounded a bit strange when she said it.

"That's cool. I want to fly too, but not desks." he added and she laughed, she had a good laugh, it wasn't a high pitched squeal like most girls'. He also noticed she was smiling at him after he said it. "What?"

"Nothing. Just most boys would have said girls can't be pilots." she explained. That must be why she sounded strange earlier.

"Huh? Why can't they be pilots? Is it something stupid like they got long hair or always wear skirts?" he asked, narrowing his eyes and frowning. She laughed again.

"No. They just don't think girls should be allowed to." she replied, a distant look coming over her eyes.

"That's just crazy talk." Cam snapped and she laughed again. They heard the sound of someone coming, calling a name, and they turned around. A woman in her early forties came around the trees and spotted them, it was Paul's Mom, she was looking for him it seemed.

"Oh, hello, you two? This is a nice spot you've found. Nice creek and lots of trees." She smiled. She was a nice lady, she liked to make sure everyone was happy. "Have either of you seen my Paul?" They both shook their heads.

"Not for a while, Mrs. Davis." replied the girl.

"Oh, well, I'm sure he's around. The burgers are about to go onto the grill if you two want some." She smiled at them and they both nodded. "Great. I'll make sure Colonel Hammond makes you some. Oh, Cameron, there are some folding chairs on the back porch if you two want to sit here awhile." Cam looked to the girl who shrugged at him, he turned back and nodded at Mrs. Davis, following her back up the garden to get the chairs. "You and Samantha are getting friendly, that's nice. I know you and your folks aren't going to be here in town for long but I think it's always good to make friends whenever you can. Maybe you can keep in touch when you go back to Kansas, that would be super." Yep, she was a nice lady. And he'd already forgotten the girl's name again. Oh well. They'd been having fun so far and it hadn't been a problem. He turned his head back to look at her and saw her turn hers to him at the same time, she smiled at him. He liked her smile. And he liked to make her laugh.

* * *

Stargate Command, January 2010

Cam rushed into Daniel's lab to find him with his nose stuck in a note book, which was as expected, the linguist looked up and gave him a questioning look at the alacrity of his arrival.

"Jackson! I was brushing my teeth this morning-" Cam began by way of explanation.

"I should hope so." Daniel interjected with a sarcastic smile. Cam ignored him.

"-and I was struck by a thought... Praxyon!" He waited a breath, hoping for a reaction. Daniel just looked at him neutrally and blinked. "Praxyon! The place with the time machine. That Ba'al used to screw with us. That the alternate us used to kick his ass." He was getting increasingly frustrated with the archaeologist's obtuseness until he saw him turn the note book he was reading around to face Cam and pushed it towards him. He reached down and read a few lines from where the archaeologist's finger was pointing.

"These are some notes I made while I was studying in Merlin's Library on Camelot when we were looking for the Ark of Truth." Jackson explained. "I wrote this one when I was reading a story of Arthur visiting the land of Hypera Ziavilis in order to learn the destiny which awaited him. He told his seneschal that if he 'did not return within a tenday that his knights should give him up for dead as he would have surely succumbed to the temptations of the otherworld.' Arthur returned after nine days, shaken and fevered, refusing to speak of his experiences."

"Do you have a gate address?" Cam asked, flipping the pages of the note book, Daniel took it from his hands and flipped several pages closer to the beginning before handing it back and pointing at another note he'd written.

"This here is a note I made about a very old account of how Myrddin often went away to his 'Observatory of the Heavens'," Daniel used air quotes, "to track the movement of the celestial bodies to allow him to 'predict the future'." Again he used the air quotes. "The place he went to was called Hypraxia Korvalis."

"Do you have a gate address?" Cam asked once more, beginning to lose patience with the archaeologist. Daniel took the notebook from him again and flipped almost all the way to the end where he pointed at a picture he'd taken of a book page and stuck the printout of it in his note book.

"This picture is a representation of the 'Stars surmounted upon the Pillar of Heaven in the land of Hypraxia Korvalis' said to have been drawn at the direction of Myrddin before he left Camelot for the last time." The picture showed a shining column, radiating light, and around the top of it were stars, most five pointed, some six pointed, a few seven pointed, all suspended in the air. Daniel's finger traced along a series of symbols which ran down the column, which looked like Ancient glyphs. He grinned at the leader of SG-1 who grinned back in return.

"When did you start looking for this?" asked Cam, he couldn't take his eyes off the glyphs, he realised he could read them and it was kind of freaking him out.

"Oh, you know, I woke up this morning and was brushing my teeth..." Daniel shrugged and chuckled but they both turned to his door as Sam burst in wearing sweatpants and a long-sleeved top, her hair looking dishevelled with her toothbrush in hand.

"Guys! Praxyon! It's got to be the solution to our power requirements!" She looked at each of them for a moment. "What?" Cam grinned, looking her up and down and she suddenly looked down at her clothes and grew bright red, pulling the hem of her top down until she realised it was tugging her collar down with it. "I'll be back in five." She ran off, shooting Cam a glare.

* * *

USS Odyssey, above P3X-474, May 2007 + 4,290 days relative

"Hey Jackson, time for food, buddy." Daniel turned at Cam's call and Sam smiled at him warmly. He smiled at them both in return before turning back to the floating runes and glyphs of the texts being displayed by the Asgard database. This was Daniel's place. As much as the Core room was hers and the flight bay was Cam's, this place on the ship was considered to be Daniel's by everyone else. Even General Landry hesitated coming in when Daniel wasn't here, just as Daniel would hesitate going into the General's arboretum while not under his watchful eye. "Vala made pseudochicken kiev!" She turned to Cam at the hint of pride in his voice. He'd taught her how to make it and he was quite happy to tell them all that he thought hers was better than his now. He was always so pleased when one of them succeeded at anything.

"I'll be there in a second. Just, I've found something really strange in this file about early Alteran history in Avalon." Oh boy, Sam still wasn't used to how easily Daniel slipped into using the Ancients' names for things. She just had to remember that when he said Avalon he meant Milky Way.

"Hmmm? What's so strange?" she asked, stepping into the room to stand next to him. Cam followed a moment after.

"Here." He held up a hand at a short list of what looked like 'gate addresses, but they couldn't be because they were each nine symbols long. "The Asgard who wrote this entry simply calls these, 'experimental Stargates' and noted they should be ignored." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully and Cam leaned forward slightly.

"These aren't listed like normal addresses." Cam muttered. "Usually you either find the six symbols of the address or all seven including that planet's point of origin symbol when they want to be complete, but look at these, they always list a point of origin, but several of them list the same one which isn't possible." He pointed at one in particular. "Look at that one, it's labelled 'Destiny' and it's using Earth's Point of Origin symbol!" Sam and Daniel both gaped at it, unsure what it meant.

"Look!" Sam pointed excitedly. "I recognise the ninth symbol of these addresses! It's the Beta 'gate's symbol" She was referring to the symbol they'd seen on the Antarctic 'gate. The two men both looked at the ones she was pointing at and then read the names listed.

"Atlantus." Cam read one the names out loud for Sam's benefit. "That's crazy!"

"No, what's really crazy is these three addresses which are different in _only_ the Point of Origin." Daniel's fingers hovered over the three addresses and all three scrunched up their faces in contemplation. "I wonder if there's anything else about 'experimental Stargates' in the database." He was scratching his chin again thoughtfully.

"There you are! My pseudochicken kiev won't wait forever you know!" cried an indignant Vala from the door, she strode in and grabbed Daniel's arm, unceremoniously dragging him away from the floating runes. "You need to eat before you read anything else!" He sputtered in protest, but Sam saw he had a faint smile on his face.

"I'm not that rough with you when I come to get you, am I?" Cam leaned towards her as he took her hand and led her out the door.

"You don't have to be, sweetie." she replied, kissing him softly.

* * *

Hypraxia Base, Praxyon, May 2010

He turned around sporting a huge grin when he got to the door, only to have a pillow wipe it off as it hit him dead center in the face.

"I can't believe you said that! Why did I ever fall in love with you?" Sam cried from the bed, but he could tell she wasn't mad, that smile on her face didn't lie.

"You know why." he said with a little knowing look and slipped his t-shirt over his head, the ring on its chain over his heart tinkling off his dogtags with the movement.

"Get out of here before I drag you back to bed." She waved him away with a huff and he smiled, he watched her for a moment, one leg tucked under her while the other hung off the bed, her hand running through her flaxen hair had her own ring on its chain sliding against the skin of her breasts, blowing her a kiss he slipped out the door into the curved corridor. He sighed happily after the door closed behind him and walked away towards his own room on base to grab his washroom gear and a change of clothes, he had to admit the black outfits they used on off-world bases were stylish, and it was nice seeing the eagles on his collars, a little concession to vanity was okay every once in a while.

Thirty minutes later, after a shower and a shave, he arrived at the circular room they'd designated as the mess due to its having, what looked like, food refrigeration and storage units behind a long counter along one section of the wall opposite the door, they didn't work, but that was okay. Several round tables with curved seats radiating around their circumference, held aloft by stanchions which curved down and back up to support the table top itself, dotted the room at irregular intervals. The place could probably seat twenty or so comfortably, while there was enough rooms on site to house forty or so personnel. Not all the rooms were serviceable of course, some were damaged, others suffered from power failures, it seems there had been some sort of large scale impact on the surface of the planet sometime in the distant past, the force of which had reached as far down as the base itself. There wasn't a great deal of damage, and only to this section, which spoke a lot about the engineering expertise of the Alterans.

He recalled this had been the first room they'd entered after starting their exploration of the base those few months ago, it was the first room at the end of the small access corridor which lead to the central core. Now they had cleared the entire section for habitation, which indeed seemed to be its intended purpose, and had moved in a small research team to prepare for their attempts to dial Destiny, of which Sam had been placed in charge. The rest of SG-1 had joined her on base for the duration as a matter of course, due in part to the discovery of a small cache of nine symbol addresses in the Asgard database on Odyssey. Found thanks to some information left behind for Daniel, _by himself_, on the reverse side of the crystal Teal'c used to rapidly disengage the Asgard Core and activate the hyperdrive of the Odyssey while they were being chased by Ori motherships on their return from the Asgard homeworld.

Teal'c admitted he had at first been hesitant to reveal the existence of all the information on the reverse of the crystal despite having told the Sam who had created it that he would do so, for which he gave a deep apology to this Sam. However, when it became clear all of them were somehow regaining memories from the lifetime they spent in the time dilation field anyway, it no longer seemed appropriate for him to keep the work they'd stored away on the crystal a secret. Cam was amazed at having found out he had become so adept at power systems engineering in his time aboard the Odyssey, and that he'd designed and built himself a flight simulator for the F302, the plans for which were currently being scrutinised at Area 51 for eventual construction. Sam's own work in temporal mechanics and relativistic physics were astounding everyone that just read the abstracts of the papers she'd written. Only a hardy few were brave enough to continue reading after that point, even Sam was having trouble with some of it right now, though as her memories came back it was getting much easier. General Landry had also produced a small body of botanical work which was stored on the crystal, which amused him to no end.

Vala, perhaps most of all, was excited to learn of what she had stored on the crystal. It seemed she had taken charge of keeping the crew entertained, probably out of being bored herself, which she had to concede was the most likely scenario. She had produced short stories and novels and even CG movies in various genres, some of which she refused to let anyone see, but most of which were enjoyable, and a handful of pieces which were truly great. She had been strutting around the base, very pleased with herself, for a while afterwards. Teal'c had already been subtly using his own work to influence change in the Free Jaffa Nation, though he had subsequently agreed to allow several of his treatices to be published so all his people could read them. It was Daniel's contribution however, which was the main reason for their presence on base with Sam. That and the fact SG-1, as an entity, pretty much refused to allow the IOA to reassign Sam away from them again after their previous attempt, for _any_ length of time. Her team would be there to have her back this time. Landry was happy to agree, and to send Odyssey to join them so they could get at the Asgard Core whenever the need arose.

Cam spotted Daniel and Vala seated at a table off to the side and made his way to join them after picking up some food. He was sure Sam and Teal'c would join them in time, if Teal'c wasn't already busy elsewhere, the man liked to get an early start to the day, really early.

"Cameron, come sit next to me." Vala smiled at him and patted the curved seat next to her, before turning back to Daniel and holding up a blueberry, as if offering to feed it to him, which he was pointedly attempting to ignore before reluctantly allowing her to place it in his mouth as he read a report. Cam grinned at that and sat himself beside Vala to eat his hash browns and eggs on toast.

"Aren't you two just the very picture of domestic bliss." he pronounced and nearly laughed when Daniel finally looked up at him with a very harsh glare.

"You," Daniel elongated the word and waggled his finger at him, "aren't in a position to make a comment like that." Cam chuckled and bowed his head in acquiescence, indeed he wasn't. "Sam coming soon?" asked the linguist as he returned to his report.

"I expect- ah, there she is." Cam nodded towards the door and smiled at Sam as she walked in the room. She smiled back and hurried to grab herself some blue jello. Cam was still amazed at how much she liked that blue jello. He'd learned very quickly to keep a large stash of the stuff at his place after they got together. She came and sat next to him and began digging in. "What's on the books for today?" he asked her as she sighed happily after her first spoonful. She looked up for a moment in thought before replying.

"More power tests to check the interfaces between our dialling computer and the control console. We cleared up several more of those nasty unstable surges we were seeing last week while running simulations. Also, some of the lab area is finally being cleared for access. Most of the labs are just that and mostly unused, and we can certainly put them to use ourselves. Some of them are still off limits until we figure out what experiments were being conducted in them. Mostly down on the lower levels." Sam supplied and Cam nodded. They'd found the lab section not long after opening up the habitation section, it was accessed from another walkway on the opposite side of the ring platform, giving the base a roughly symmetrical shape of concentric rings of corridors around the central core chamber with a separation between the labs and housing, if you looked at an overhead plan of the base you could literally call them wings. There were several levels to each of the sections to either side of the core chamber, accessed via platforms which floated up and down on gravitic plates at either end of the long curving corridors. "The last of the guard rails in the central chamber are being welded into place today too around the extended 'gate platform." He felt Vala sighing next to him. "Daniel said he was going back up to Odyssey to see if he could find out anything more about the nine chevron addresses in the database." At the mention of his name Daniel looked up but he didn't have a hopeful look. They each knew he had attempted this before, and the version of him from the time dilation field hadn't found anything in the years he had spent looking.

"I suppose we could always ask Thor." Cam offered before putting a forkful of hash browns in his mouth. The other three at the table turned to him as one with confused looks and he had to gulp his food down quickly. "You haven't remembered about that yet I guess."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am only playing in the world.

**T****he Ninth Chevron – Chapter 2**

Stargate Command, December 2005

Sam recoiled from the look in Cam's eyes when he came in to her lab. Her eyes widened in fear and her pulse quickened as adrenalin surged through her veins in the classic fight or flight response. She was in for it now. She'd promised, given her word and she'd reneged, but she couldn't just leave! This was too important! There was no way she could go now!

"Cam, I'm really sorry, but I'm just too busy. This data won't wait until tomorrow or I swear I-" She was trying to get through to him, but he didn't even blink, just moved towards her relentlessly, like a man possessed. "Cameron?" She quickly clambered off her chair as he got closer and backed up until she was pressed back against one of her shelves. She yelped as he grabbed her wrist and pulled, turning her around and wrapping his arm around her waist. He began dragging her back out around her table, which she was grasping at desperately, but to no avail, her scrabbling fingers could find no purchase and the soles of her boots were just scuffing uselessly against the clean, smoothly painted concrete floor of her lab. "Cameron Daniel Mitchell, what are you doing?" Again he ignored her, just pulling her along with his hand at her waist, his fingers splayed open against her stomach. His warm fingers. What? She shook her head at that thought and reached down to try to pry his fingers away, but was unable to. "Cam, stop this! Please!" They were out in the hall and airmen were doing their best to scramble out of the way. They could see Lt. Colonel Mitchell was on a mission and if you didn't get out of the way he'd walk right over you. "Someone, help please." she called out and was rather incensed at the tiny little head shakes she was getting in return. Suddenly Cameron stopped and stood stock still, she turned her head in surprise to see General Landry in the corridor looking at them sternly, she came to attention as well. "General Landry, sir, I was in the middle of reviewing a lot of the data we recorded from Khalek in my lab. It's really fascinating actually I-" She stopped abruptly when Landry turned from her to Mitchell and raised his eyebrows.

"Movie night?" he asked.

"Yes, sir." came the ready reply.

"Carry on, Mitchell." Landry began to move away, leaving Sam staring at him agape.

"Yes, sir." Cam's hand grabbed the back of her belt and he started moving again, dragging her backwards down the corridor.

"Traitor!" she yelled at the retreating back of General Landry.

* * *

Miami, Florida, October 2008 (alternate timeline)

Sam snuggled against him as they sat on the lower aft deck of the boat they'd chartered for a long weekend. It never really got that cold in Miami and it was still eighty degrees and sunny. He had an arm stretched out over the back of the bench they were sitting on watching the docks, while her fingers played idly with the front of his tank top. He turned his head and kissed the top of hers, just behind her nestled sunglasses. He felt her hand stop momentarily, her fingers pull back from him for just an instant before resuming their playful stroking.

"What's wrong, honey?" he asked, his lips still pressed against her soft blonde hair. He felt her sigh gently and shift a little more into him.

"Do you think we're... do you think Daniel feels like a third wheel around us?" Her voice was soft with concern.

"Baby, Vala figured me out after five minutes tops. And I bet she told Jackson five minutes after that." He felt Sam sniggering against his chest and smiled. "I think he's been expecting it." She lifted her head to look at him with her shining blue eyes. "Besides, when it's you and me, then it's just you and me, but when it's the three of us, it's the three of us. You know that. And before you suggest it, no, I don't think we should encourage Daniel to date while he's here. Vala wouldn't stand for it." She chuckled against him.

"I don't think she's in the right frame of mind to protest against it right at this moment." she offered and he turned his head to watch the marina again.

"I wouldn't bet my Air Force stipend on it." He reached up and pushed his sunglasses back up the bridge of his nose, the collar of his open, short-sleeved shirt flapping in the breeze against his neck. Sam was quiet for a few moments and then started giggling. "What?"

"Well, it's just it wouldn't be the first time a symbiote had fallen for Daniel." She was chuckling openly now and Cam had to search through his encyclopaedic recall through the SG-1 mission files. Not a Goa'uld, since she said symbiote very deliberately, so one of the Tok'ra. It only took a few moments after that to come up with a name.

"Let me guess, Anise of the Tok'ra, came to the SGC back in... 2000 to ask you to test strength enhancing armbands created by the Atonieks, a race that died out before the arrival of the Goa'uld." When he finished his recitation he felt Sam raise her head to look at him again with amazement in her eyes.

"Do you have eidetic recall or something?" she asked and he shrugged smiling.

"I was in that hospital a long time and it was the mission files or Dan Brown and I wasn't gonna read Dan Brown. _Especially_ if I have eidetic recall." he explained. She smiled and lay her head down on his shoulder. "Anyways, I don't think Jackson would stand for it either."

"Hmm, he and Vala _have_ been getting on a lot better recently. They still bicker constantly, but it's almost as if that's how they show their affection for each other." she offered.

"Ever since Odyssey." he said softly and she was quiet, her hand resting against his chest again, her fingers running lazy circles over the fabric of his shirt. "You know, I had a dream a while back," he felt her still the movement of her hand, her breathing also hitched, "I was running down one of the corridors on board, ran past Jackson's quarters just as the doors opened, only to see Vala step out, rearranging her clothes and waving back inside, looking distinctly... post-coital." That set her to sniggering and he relaxed himself. By her reaction he could guess she was also having these strange non-dreams. She sat up and stretched her arms over her head. Her eyes locked on to something in the distance and he followed her gaze. Speak of the Devil. Daniel was taking a pack out of the trunk of a car in the car park on the far side of the marina, before threading his way onto the dock itself. Sam was waving at Daniel from beside him and Daniel waved back, Cam shot him a quick salute and he stood up to step out on to the dock. Something was up. Daniel didn't look happy.

"What's wrong, Daniel?" Sam was standing on deck with her hands on her hips, concern evident on her face. She'd pushed her own sunglasses into place from the top of her head as she stepped out from under the overhang of the top deck. Cam took Daniel's pack and threw it up to Sam who caught it deftly and lay it down inside the cabin. He then helped Daniel board, making sure his prosthetic leg didn't bother him, and untied the mooring line to allow them to cast off, before boarding again himself.

"Damn Navy is what!" muttered Daniel in high dudgeon. "I told you about that briefing request I got from them, right?"

"Yeah, you did." Sam replied and Cam nodded as she helped Daniel climb up onto the top deck and find a seat there under the canopy. She went back to get the hamper and cooler they'd brought, which Cam helped her take up, then he started up the boat and set off for the Atlantic. All the while Daniel was describing his briefing with the Admiral in charge of the Stargate Program.

"Well, they wanted to know more about some of the aliens and artifacts we already know exist on Earth, like Seth and Hathor's sarcophagus and Osiris' canopic jar," as he listed each Sam and Cam looked increasingly horrified about the inexperienced and fledgling Stargate Program taking on full fledged Goa'uld on Earth, "they haven't been found so either Ba'al has been busy on the Q.T. over the years or this timeline just keeps diverging more and more." Neither scenario had Cam enthused. "Oh, and the Telchak device." Cam groaned audibly from the helm and turned towards Daniel who was seated at one of the benches trying to let the sun and breeze calm him down. "Oh, yes! They want to send a SEAL team down to Honduras to 'secure' it." He made an airquotes gesture. "They said if I help brief their team on it and other things then they'll look into lifting the interaction ban on us." The look on his face told Cam that was something Daniel wanted pretty badly, he couldn't disagree.

"Do you think they really ever will, Daniel?" Sam asked from the opposite side where she was sweeping her hair up into a ponytail to keep it contained in the gently increasing breeze.

"They better." He grimaced and even though his eyes were hidden behind his sunglasses they could both see the fire in them.

"How come they're asking you for help and not us?" Cam prodded as he navigated out past a breaker into one of the barrier island channels.

"Well, I'm sure they might ask Sam for some help sometime, but your skillset isn't much use except off-world I think." Daniel offered apologetically.

"Hey, I can kick ass on any planet! Including P2X-3YZ!" he exclaimed vehemently and Sam grinned.

"P2X-3YZ?" Daniel asked confused.

"That's the planetary designation for Earth." explained Sam. Daniel rolled his eyes.

"You military types have to make up designations for everything don't you. Mitchell probably has them for his socks. What would you call those ones your wearing?" Daniel prompted. Cam looked down at his deck shoes for a moment.

"Socks, blue, possibly mismatched." he replied and Sam burst out laughing. "I have a lot of blue socks." Daniel scoffed.

"Anyway, I agreed to help them... provisionally." Daniel got the conversation back on track.

"I do not want the Navy to have access to something that can cause the Zombie Apocalypse!" Cam cried while looking out over the prow, promptly derailing the conversation once more.

"You're exaggerating, Cam, the Zombie Apocalypse? Seriously?" Sam looked at him with a teasing smile, but Cam's face was deathly serious. He turned to Daniel whose own features were as stone.

"She doesn't have one." said Daniel matter-of-factly. To which Cam nodded with a grunt.

"Have one what?" asked Sam looking at each of them in turn.

"A Zombie Apocalypse Survival Plan." Cam intoned and she scoffed at him. Both he and Daniel didn't waver however, remaining steadfastly unsmiling as she stared at them incredulously.

"You can't be serious! A Zombie Apocalypse Survival Plan?" When they didn't react her jaw gaped. "You're serious."

"Sam, the Telchak device is Zombie Apocalypse-in-a-can!" Cam explained. "And you should know better than anyone how bad it can get having fought Kull warriors." At the mention of the Goa'uld super-soldiers Sam blanched. "You think I was just pitching an idea to Martin Lloyd at that meeting? I was trying to get the word out. I've thought long and hard about how to survive the coming of the undead horde."

"You have to be prepared." Daniel stated harshly.

"Crazy prepared." Cam went further. They sailed on in silence for several minutes as Sam's head was bowed in thought.

"You guys are punking me!" she cried and they both laughed, grinning at her. She began to laugh as well but stopped when both Cam's and Daniel's laughter ended simultaneously and they resumed their stonily serious looks.

"Are we?" asked Daniel.

* * *

USS Odyssey, above Praxyon, May 2010

"You talked to Thor, _the_ Thor." she asked him incredulously as they walked the corridors of Odyssey towards the Asgard Core room. He nodded and she turned to stare off into the distance with her mouth slightly open. "And you didn't let me talk to him? I hope I kicked your ass for that!" She gave him a glare and he smiled at her.

"Oh, you did. You'll remember it eventually I expect." His smile was infectious and she bumped him with her shoulder as they reached the Core room. "Now I don't know if this will work. It was kind of an accident the first time around and Thor said he didn't know how 'physical tinkering' could have caused it. 'Inadvertent' he said it was." Sam smiled, that did sound like Thor. Daniel, Vala, Teal'c and Colonel Hendricks, the current commander of Odyssey entered behind them and Cam moved around the Core and bent down out of sight.

"I'm having trouble believing the Asgard aren't actually gone." Daniel whispered to her as Vala stuck her head over the console to watch what Cam was doing.

"Glad though, aren't you? I am." she offered, he smiled and nodded as did Teal'c from behind Daniel.

"Indeed, the Asgard are worthy allies." Sam saw the note of relief in his eyes, which he must have been carrying for over fifty years now, just as a loud yelp was heard from Cam's position and he shot up jerking his hand and licking his fingers.

"There it is. Still hurts." Just as he spoke a shape shimmered before her facing towards the console and she gasped at the realism of the hologram. Breathing, a light sheen off the grey skin, the more natural movement of the arms and head as it tilted to the side. It definitely wasn't the hologram she'd seen and used since that trip. That one was stilted in its motion even for an Asgard whose movements could never be described as human.

"Colonel Mitchell, you look younger than the last time we spoke. I take it Colonel Carter's plan to reverse time was a success?" asked the hologram before turning around and seeing her standing there with a stunned expression. "It is good to see you, Colonel Carter, Dr. Jackson, Vala Mal Doran, Teal'c." He glanced at Hendricks beside her. "We have not met. I am Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet, (retired)." Oh, God, he learnt that from Jack. The Asgard nodded his grey head in greeting and blinked his limpid black orbs.

"Uh, a pleasure to meet you, Supreme Commander, I'm Colonel Rafe Hendricks, US Air Force. I'm the commander of Odyssey." said the rather bewildered-looking officer.

"Whoa, whoa, back it up, Thor." Cam interrupted as he came around the console holding his limp right hand with his left. Sam looked at him in surprise until she too registered exactly what it was that Thor had said a little while ago.

"Thor, you remember your last meeting with Cameron?" she asked him. He blinked at her slowly and nodded.

"Of course, Colonel Carter. I remember everything I experience. Oh, I see, the question should not be why I remember our last meeting, but how you do, Colonel Mitchell." He turned back to Cameron and looked him up and down.

"No, I think how either of us remember it is the question." replied Cameron as he clenched and unclenched his right hand, Sam walked over to him and took it in hers, rubbing it gently to get the feeling back into his fingers, he smiled gratefully at her.

"We've all been having... flashbacks I suppose you could call them, despite that timeline not really existing anymore." began Daniel coming around to face the Asgard hologram who turned to look at him. "And now you tell us you remember speaking to Mitchell during that time as well?" The Asgard was quiet for a moment.

"The reason I remember it is fairly straightforward." He tilted his grey head as he regarded each of them before returning to Cam. "You recall that I told you running the simulation of my consciousness is a considerable power drain, which Colonel Carter would require to implement any plan she could devise?"

"Yeah, we had to actually use the Ori energy beam to power the time reversal since after fifty odd years there wasn't enough power available in the ZPM or the neutrino-ion core to power it." Cam replied. The Asgard blinked in clear surprise.

"You spent fifty years under a time dilation field? That is indeed a testament to your skills at power conservation. It should not have been possible for the power core to sustain that field for so long." The hologram was clearly impressed. Sam looked at Cam with a proud smile knowing he had been the most responsible for that. "To also devise a way to use the power contained in an energy weapon blast to power the Core's generators is... very human." The hologram's eyes seemed to lose focus for a moment, Sam couldn't figure out how she could tell that since they were a uniform black colour. A reminder to her of just how much time she'd spent with Asgard in general, and Thor in particular. Also of the accuracy of this simulation. "The reason why I asked you to terminate my simulation to conserve power was not simply to do with the processing elements. It was also the drain associated with sustaining the connection to the Deep Core which is necessary to run the simulation." They all looked confused." Sam turned to face him and tilted her head.

"What kind of connection would you need? What is the Deep Core?" She brought her arms up to wrap around her front.

"Colonel Carter, you know the data storage densities available in our storage core," he pointed towards the Core console behind him, "you are also aware just how much storage is necessary to store even one Asgard consciousness." He was alluding to the time he'd had to store his consciousness in the Biliskner's main computer, realisation dawned on her.

"There's nowhere near enough storage in the Asgard Core to store the consciousnesses of the entire Asgard race." She turned to Cam with a look of wonder. "The Deep Core isn't on board Odyssey, and activating the simulation routines also activated the connection to the Deep Core which must be hard to sustain while the time dilation field was active." She turned back to Thor to see him nodding in agreement. "Where is the Deep Core?"

"In a separate, artificially generated dimension, independent of this space-time continuum, hence unaffected by your time reversal process." Thor stated matter-of-factly. Colonel Hendricks had to sit down at one of the other consoles, he looked to be suffering from a headache. "I believe the reason you are remembering your time in the time dilation field is a result of this connection having been activated." They all glanced at each other and Sam could see how each of them still weren't following.

"We don't quite understand, Thor." offered Daniel as Vala came to stand beside him, pouted and rested her forehead on his shoulder, it seemed she was also getting a headache. "Why would the connection between the Asgard Core and the Deep Core affect us?"

"To call it merely a connection is somewhat misleading. Technically when the Deep Core connection is activated, the Asgard Core generates a field which merges the regular time-space continuum with the artificial dimension in which the Deep Core resides. The field encompasses the entire vessel, hence everyone within it is also in contact with that dimension whilst the connection is active." As Thor spoke everyone turned to face Cameron, who had been the one to first activate the connection. And had done so again just now. He just shrugged apologetically. "It is harmless," explained the Asgard to allay everyone's concern, "but it does create quantum paired bonds between an individual's consciousness and the dimensional medium. Bonds which are used to record changes in the consciousness, even after the field itself is deactivated. This is how we were able to store our consciousnesses originally." Thor glanced down in apology before turning to Sam. "It was our oversight which created those bonds between your teammates and General Landry and the Deep Core. We neglected to deactivate the quantum pair bonding initialisation once we originally imprinted our consciousnesses into the Core. When I had Colonel Mitchell deactivate the connection the last time he also deactivated this initialisation." He turned to Colonel Hendricks as he spoke. "You needn't worry that you or your crew will be similarly connected to the Deep Core, Colonel Hendricks." The Odyssey's commander simply nodded numbly. Sam was beginning to understand what was happening to them, and how they remembered things from that now non-existent timeline.

"Our residual connection to the Deep Core recorded all of our memories," she began, unconsciously moving closer to Cam, Thor nodded, "and they survived past the time reversal field we created." The Asgard nodded once more, blinking slowly.

"Quite so, an unforeseeable series of events to an Asgard, we never considered what effect the combination of the connection, a time dilation field and time reversal would have. We lack the... imagination which humans have in abundance. Some would say we also lack your... curiosity. It is probable you would have foreseen the results, Colonel Carter, had you developed the technology."

"Oh, I don't know about that, Thor." Sam rebutted quickly. "It was Vala who came up with the idea of reversing time, not me." Thor looked over at Vala and blinked slowly.

"Impressive." he complimented as she smiled nervously under his gaze. Daniel stepped forward slightly to regard each of them for a moment, a rather intent look in his eye.

"Fascinating as all this is," he looked at Sam apologetically, and he was right, she was utterly fascinated, "we actually activated you to ask about the nine symbol addresses we found in the Asgard database." Everyone shifted nervously recalling their original purpose in coming, except Teal'c, he was perfectly calm.

"I'm afraid I cannot tell you very much about them, Dr. Jackson. We recovered those addresses from an Ancient outpost, in our original galaxy of Ida, which had been nearly completely destroyed. This was a great deal of time after they left our plane of existence. We were unable to recover anything more than what you have already seen I imagine. Although it was posited the complete list of these addresses could be... sizeable. We did not decide to pursue any investigation of it, due to our lack of curiosity and imagination no doubt." Daniel looked crestfallen. "All I can tell you is that the few 'experimental Stargates', as we dubbed them, to which we attempted to connect, required immense amounts of power to do so and very complex, real-time synchronisation calculations to maintain. It was deemed unnecessarily risky to us as the conditions of each location seemed inhospitable to our kind, especially as we were already at war with the Replicators." Daniel sighed in resignation. Sam felt her shoulders slump in disappointment and Cam gently placed his hand on one of them. She rested her own hand on his, letting her fingers brush along the back of it. Thor looked to each of them in turn. "I should point out once again, the purpose of the Deep Core is to sustain our consciousnesses until such a time as it may be possible for us to be revived by you. We do not ask this of you lightly, it was greatly debated in the High Council, however, we felt if anyone would be able to accomplish this task it would be the Fifth Race. However, as you can imagine, the power requirements of maintaining a connection between this reality and the Deep Core is... non-trivial, and we had not intended for you to even find out about the existence of the Core for many generations, until you were ready to take on the task we have laid at your feet. I understand however, that the interface avatar to the Core I programmed originally may be insufficient. I will endeavour to create one which will not drive Colonel Carter 'buggy,'" he glanced at Cameron, "and which will not 'creep her out' with its near-accuracy." Cam grinned as Sam glanced his way in slight confusion. "It is done, it will not require much more power than it currently does, but should be acceptable." Sam looked at Thor sadly, realising this was likely the last time she would speak to him.

"Thank you, Thor, for everything." she said, trying not to choke up.

"We won't let your people down." Daniel added from beside her.

"Farewell, my friend. It was good to see you again for this short time." rumbled Teal'c, bowing to the hologram.

"I promise to come up with more impressive ideas." Vala smiled before looping her arms around Daniel's and leaning against him, he turned to her and patted one of her hands.

"Sorry, I kinda messed up your plans to surprise us all. I'll say what I said the last time. I hope to see you again sometime in the future." Cam said as he moved to the Core console to deactivate the connection.

"Farewell to all of you." Thor nodded deeply while blinking his large black eyes slowly once more, he looked at Cam and nodded slightly and shimmered away once Cam deactivated the hologram. Cam turned back to them and found Sam pressing her head against his shoulder, gripping the front of his jacket. He placed his hands on her arms and rubbed up and down her sleeves lightly as the rest began shuffling out of the room. Sam felt devastated, she'd had to say good bye to Thor again. It was almost harder this time knowing he was still so close.

"Do you want to check out his replacement avatar?" Cam asked softly, his mouth only inches from her ear. She shook her head vehemently, it wasn't something she was up for right now. She pulled back from him slightly and he let her go with a sad smile.

"I'll be okay, I just need a bit of time." she whispered to him and he nodded, leading her out of the Core room and back to the others.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am only playing in the world.

**T****he Ninth Chevron – Chapter 3**

Stargate Command, February 2007

Sam awoke to the smell of coconut. And chocolate. Her mind was still a bit fuzzy, but she was sure she remembered that smell from not too long ago. She fluttered her eyes open to find herself staring at a relatively familiar, albeit blurry, ceiling. Not one to which she liked to wake up, but one to which she was forced to do so on occasion. She blinked several times trying to clear the blurriness from her eyes and to give herself time to remember why she was here, and why that smell was familiar. She shifted slightly and her whole left side spasmed painfully, causing her to clench her jaw and screw her eyes shut again. The pain passed after a moment and she breathed out a slow, shuddery breath through her nose. She forced her fingers straight again and licked her dry lips. Chancing opening her eyes once more she raised her left hand slightly and lifted her hospital gown away from the throbbing pain in her abdomen. Oh yeah, that's right, she got shot by an Ori staff weapon. She sighed softly and closed her eyes in thought for a moment. That was one question answered. Time for the other. Why was that smell so familiar?

She liked chocolate quite a bit, though she preferred dark chocolate to milk chocolate, she definitely wouldn't refuse any. She was quite fond of coconut also, when used properly. Why then, was this smell not tempting her as it should. She heard a snort from her right and glanced over. There was a head lying on the edge of her bed by her right hand. Tousled, short brown hair, resting on an uncovered forearm, the sleeves of the blue BDUs were rolled up to the elbow. Cameron. He was sitting by her bed, sleeping. He was going to be sore when he woke up. Macaroons. That was the smell. He'd brought her macaroons. In a brown paper bag. And they'd smelled strange, when they shouldn't have. She liked chocolate and she liked coconut, why had that smell put her off then? A shadow passed in front of her and she blinked rapidly at the loss of the light.

"Oh, you've woken up, Colonel." The voice was speaking very softly and Sam glanced over at Cam, still sleeping. "How are you feeling, Sam?" A hand took hold of her left wrist and held it gently for a minute.

"Fuzzy." she answered truthfully. "Very fuzzy. Been having trouble remembering things for a bit since I woke up. Thirsty." She was whispering as well, not wanting to wake up her friend. Very gingerly and slowly she was eased up and another pillow was put behind her so she was sitting up somewhat. She found a cup with a straw held out in front of her face and she took several small sips before letting her head fall back again.

"That's understandable, the medication we had you on yesterday was very strong. Everything will come back to you in short order." A pen light came out of a breast pocket and hovered over her eyes. "I want to test your pupillary reflex, okay? Sorry about the bright light." She knew the drill, opening her eyes wide she let the doctor, Carolyn Lam she remembered, flick the light back and forth across her eyes and away from them. "Good, that's normal. Any pain in your side?"

"Only when I move, or breath, or think about it." Sam chuckled and winced.

"Or laugh apparently." Dr. Lam smiled at her gently and patted her arm. She walked around the bed and tip-toed around the sleeping Cameron. Sam followed her with her eyes and saw her reach for a brown paper bag on her bedside table. The bag of macaroons Cam had baked. He'd written something on the bag in black marker. 'Take one, you'll like it', she sighed. He had so wanted her to like his macaroons. Carolyn dipped a hand in the bag and grabbed a couple and came back to the other side of the bed nibbling on one of them. "These are so good, I had no idea Colonel Mitchell was such a good cook. I think I've been checking up on you more often than I normally would so I can sneak a few more." she whispered, Cameron still slept soundly on his forearm by her hand.

"You really like it? He gave me one yesterday but it wasn't good." Sam said, scrunching her face in distaste. Carolyn looked at her surprised for a moment before her expression softened in understanding.

"Yesterday, you say," she offered Sam the second macaroon, Sam shook her head shying away from it slightly, "while you were on medication that affected your sense of smell and taste?" Sam's eyes widened slightly and she looked at the macaroon thoughtfully before nodding slightly. Carolyn held it closer to Sam's lips and she took a bite, it was sweet, with a hint of vanilla, the chocolate and coconut mingling together, adding both smoothness and texture. Almonds, he'd crushed almonds into it too. She blinked rapidly. Delicious. She took the rest of the macaroon and nearly swooned. Carolyn chuckled softly and walked away. Oh God, she'd told Cam she hated them! What was she going to do? If she told him she liked them he'd think she was indulging him. She looked over at him, still sleeping, his face turned away from her. Her hand reached for him, her fingers running into his short soft hair. She'd tell him. Eventually. Maybe. Once she'd learned to bake some just as good as his.

* * *

Stargate Command, July 2009

Cam turned the corner in the corridor and strode in through the door of Sam's lab, purposely grabbing her BDU jacket and holding it up by the shoulders, bouncing it up and down silently in expectation. She glanced up smiling when he walked in but her brow furrowed in confusion at his actions.

"What is it, Cameron? Are we going somewhere?" She'd decided some time ago that she would be saved a lot of bother if she just accepted that Cam only came calling so forcefully when she _needed_ the break. And he was right this time too, she was getting nowhere with her research and the data was starting to swim in front of her eyes. She got up without protest and set her laptop to shut down before walking over and letting him help her with her jacket.

"Atlantis." he replied. "It's been a week since my gene therapy treatment. Gonna get checked out by the local sawbones and then it's jumper cert for me. Taking you with me." She smiled at his obvious enthusiasm.

"Cam, you're talking as if it won't take us hours to get to San Francisco, let me go to my quart-" She never finished her sentence as Cam lay a hand around her back, held out a small disc and pressed it. Sam was incredibly surprised to see him with a transport beacon, and even more surprised as the white shimmering light of an Asgard beam enveloped both of them. When she could see again she was standing in the 'gate room of Atlantis, staring at an amused looking Lt. Colonel John Sheppard, and a smiling Dr. Carson Beckett.

"Daedalus, this is Atlantis, we have the Colonels. Much appreciated." He was sporting a lop-sided grin as his fingers touched the comm in his ear. The disconnected voice of Daedalus' Asgard beam technician acknowledged the message and signed off. Sam looked dismayed. A technician gathered up the three transport beacon markers which had marked off the area in the cloaked city Sam and Cam had been beamed into for the benefit of Daedalus' technicians.

"Tell me you didn't just get us beamed to Atlantis for a joyride!" She whirled to face Cam and his evil smirk. John replied for him from behind her.

"Hell, no. He just got a beam to Atlantis to fail his jumper cert!" John was grinning too. Men and their bloody testosterone. She glared at Beckett who really should know better.

"Don't look at me, love. I'm just going to check the results of the Colonel's gene therapy. The arrangements for his arrival are none of my ken." He was amused. They were all enjoying this. She groaned in frustration and held her hand up to her forehead.

"It is quite alright, Colonel Carter. I approved this myself." Richard Woolsey was ambling down the stairs from command to join them. "The more members of the SGC to get the gene therapy and be certified on the puddle jumpers the better. Dr. Beckett, please proceed." He nodded to the Scots clone and she had to admit she was slightly placated. Dr. Beckett motioned in the direction of the infirmary and turned to lead the way.

"I'll get two jumpers ready and see you in the bay, Mitchell." John called from the stairs he was already ascending. Cam signalled an acknowledgement and turned towards Carson.

"Is this check-up really necessary, Doc?" he queried. "Dr. Lam's already given me the once over back at the SGC." Sam remembered her own gene therapy session after she took command of the city, she was slightly disappointed to have only expressed very lightly, enough to activate simpler or less well-protected pieces of Ancient technology. She could fly a jumper but not to the same degree of control as John or even Carson. Something she deeply regretted.

"Carolyn is a fine physician, Colonel, and I believe you when you say she's cleared you and your therapy," Carson looked over his shoulder at the pair while walking, "but let's just say I have a bit more hands-on experience with it. I should also be able to give you an idea of how strongly you may be expressing the therapy." Cam made a little silent 'oh' and Sam could see his eyes twinkling. She rolled her eyes, betting he was wondering how his measured up with John's. Pissing contests. They rounded the corner into the infirmary and Beckett indicated the scanner, Cam eyed it warily, but hopped on, lying back on the platform. "I also have a few more toys than she does." Carson smiled and activated the scanner, which he used to project a view of Cameron's body above his head and zoomed in all the way through into the nucleus of a cell and to the strands of DNA within, zooming in further to display a representation of the double helix structure of the known expression site for the ATA gene. He pressed a few more buttons which caused several boxes of information to appear next to the floating strands with bright lines pointing to individual globules in the structure. "Yes, that looks very promising. You'll also be happy to know that apart from the titanium rod in your leg, and the other remnants of your crash in Antarctica, you're fit as a fiddle." he stated happily. Sam was always amazed by the Ancient technology here in Atlantis. Carson switched off the scanner and held out a smaller device with a small display and what seemed to be a projector on the top for Cameron to take. He took it and sat up on the bed. Sam came to stand closer and smiled at him, she'd done this test too. "Now I want you to hold that and think 'light'." Cam held it up and focused his gaze on it, a small globe of light appeared above the device and the display flickered to show a little red bar which quickly grew to become orange then yellow, all the while the light grew brighter and brighter. After a few moments the light was painfully bright and the display was flickering back and forth from a greenish yellow to green. "Very nice, Colonel. One of our strongest expressions yet. Colonel Sheppard can quite easily take the device all the way into the green and hold it there, not many at all can get it past yellow. You might even give him a run for his money in the combat certification trial."

"Oh, Doc, you better believe it. I _know_ he won't go easy on me and I intend to paste him. He hadn't flown fighters in years before he arrived in Atlantis and I've learned a thing or two about inertialess combat tactics in my time flying 302s. He's in for a surprise." Cam said with supreme confidence. Dr. Beckett smiled at him and ushered them off, wishing Cameron good luck. Sam looked at him as they walked back to a transporter.

"Cam, John's really good in the jumpers, he's been flying them for years. Don't underestimate him." She stared into his eyes when he turned to her and she could see he really wasn't. "Well, I'll cheer you on from the command deck anyway. Gotta root for SG-1 now even if I did run this place for a year." She was grinning, but it fell away at his look.

"Cheer me on from Atlantis? Nuh-uh, Sam, you're comin' with me. You know I take you up as soon as I can whenever I fly a new bird." he announced in a serious voice. She was about to protest when they reached a transporter and he held up a finger in front of her face to cut her off. "No buts, Sam." He used the finger he was holding up to choose the transporter in the jumper bay as their destination.

* * *

USS Odyssey, above P3X-474, May 2007 + 4,612 days relative

Cameron swept the padded staff in a perfect arc only a centimeter above the mat while Teal'c leapt over it and spun his own staff vertically from his shoulder, around behind him and back up towards the Air Force officer's head from below as he was rising from his lowered stance back into a defensive counterpoint from which he had hoped to launch another attack. Teal'c's move caught him off guard however, and it was all he could do to flip the staff over his wrist and get both hands on it again to block the upper cut at waist height. He leapt back and spun the staff to a guard position behind his back and paced back and forth, his breathing laboured.

"That was good, I liked that. You would have got me had I been moving into any other stance." He told his sparring partner and friend, who nodded in acknowledgement.

"Indeed. That you instinctively chose that stance as your fall back move is telling." Teal'c smiled and raised his eyebrow, the Jaffa was barely breathing hard at all. Sometimes it annoyed Cam to no end. He was really having trouble keeping up with him nowadays. Age was really taking its toll, a year shy of fifty now. Teal'c was seventy years older though, damn aliens! He chuckled and Teal'c's only response was a tilt of his head.

"Just thinkin' we've been at this a dozen years now and you keep getting faster. I won't be able to give you a decent work out for much longer." He knew Teal'c could see the disappointment in his eyes and the warrior smiled gently, reproving.

"You believe you are slowing down with age, Colonel Mitchell. That your strength starts to fail you." He shook his head and lay one end of his staff on the floor. Cam followed suit, leaning on his a bit too much for his liking.

"You are strong in mind, quick in body, determined in spirit. You have only begun to fight. I have met few humans your age who are as physically able as you are now. Not even O'Neill." Teal'c followed him with his eyes as he spoke, Cam moved to the side of the mat and picked up their water bottles, throwing one to Teal'c who caught it deftly without pausing with his speech. "The only thing you lacked, Colonel Mitchell, was an emotional center. You had desire enough to fight, conviction enough to die, and reason enough to live, though you did not see it." Cam furrowed his brow at his friend and tilted his head enquiringly. "Not until you finally told her." A small smirk played across the Jaffa's lips and Cam grinned ruefully at him.

"Thanks, T-man." He nodded slowly at his friend before tossing his bottle aside and waiting for Teal'c to do the same after taking a long drink. He positioned his staff before him and set himself on the balls of his feet. "Once more." The Jaffa bowed slightly and took a stance, poised to attack.

* * *

USS Odyssey, above P3X-474, May 2007 + 4,612 days relative

Sam stared at the ceiling over Daniel and Vala's bed as she listened to the other woman's fingers tap away at the keys of a laptop on the other side of the room. She sighed slightly and raised a hand to brush a long strand of her blond hair back around her ear. When engrossed in her writing, Vala was a calming influence for Sam, she'd lay on the bed and listen to the clatter of keys for an hour or two and leave again feeling relieved and invigorated. Sometimes they didn't even say anything to each other, Sam would just lay a hand on the other woman's shoulder and lean down to lay her cheek on the top of her head and Vala would look up smiling before she left. They'd grown close over the years. They talked about a lot of things, but sometimes it was the silences they shared which she valued most. Silence fell around her and she glanced over at her friend, noting she'd stopped her typing and was stretching languorously. She was taking a break.

"Vala, do you ever wish you and Daniel could be married here?" She watched Vala turn her head towards her then swivel her chair to face her and cross one leg over the other before replying.

"No, it would be undone when you succeed with your efforts. We made our peace with our own demons long ago, our commitment to each other isn't dependent on anything like that." Vala tilted her head at Sam and waited the span of several breaths before asking the question. "Do you wish you could get married to Cameron?" Sam looked away for a while before answering.

"To be honest? No. Not here anyway. For the same reasons as you, I think," Sam sighed once more and turned to look at Vala again, "but it makes me scared." The other woman's eyes narrowed in confusion. "If we get out of this, Vala, all our memories will be gone, forever. None of this will ever happen. What if... what if Cam and I never would have been together if not for this. What if all we'll ever share together is the time in this bubble which will one day burst and cease to exist, taking all we shared along with it. And I'm the one who's working so hard to burst that bubble!" She raised her hands to cover her eyes, her breath coming in small shudders. She heard Vala stand and pad over to the bed, sitting at the edge of it by Sam. She uncovered her eyes and turned to look at the other woman who was leaning over her with a sharp look.

"You're wondering if you're not working as hard as you could be to get us out of this?" Vala's words horrified her and she vehemently shook her head. "Or that by working as hard as you are you're somehow debasing yours and Cameron's feelings for each other?" This time she had to think a lot harder about it before shaking her head. She remembered how Cam had been before they entered into their relationship, how being on this ship was destroying him. She would do anything to spare him that. "Then you have nothing to worry about. Anyway, Cameron's always been in love with you, Samantha. Trust in that. Trust in him. Because believe me, he trusts in you."

* * *

Hypraxia Base, Praxyon, May 2010

Sam stared at her computer screen blearily, her eyes going unfocused every few seconds. She was way too tired and not as young as she used to be. She stretched her arms over her head and reached for her coffee cup only to find it empty. Sighing softly she laid it back on the table and returned to staring at the screen. There was something in these power consumption formulas solved by Eli Wallace which were whispering to her. She was missing something, Dr. Rush had missed something, they'd all missed something. She moaned softly. She needed coffee. She was close to an answer, her brain was itching the way it did when she was close. If only she could stick it out a moment longer.

"Brought you some coffee, darlin', and some of your favourite." That Southern drawl had her head whipping up to face the door. She was seeing things, Cam had a literal halo around his head as he walked towards her. It was just a little too symbolic for her mind to process at that moment. He moved out of the frame of the door and it was gone, but she nearly swooned when he placed the mug of coffee and the tall sundae glass of blue jello in front of her. She looked up at him by her side and smiled gratefully. He looked to the door before leaning down and kissing her softly on the lips, letting the contact linger, his warmth suffusing her tired brain. She sighed and closed her eyes. God, she loved him.

"I love you." She breathed the words out into the tiny space between them and the effect was immediate, no matter how many times she said it, the effect was always the same, he would smile and the colour would rise up his neck and into his cheeks, and his eyes would sparkle like the stars themselves. She did that to him. Every time. He raised a hand and brushed her cheek with the back of his fingers. The skin where he touched her burned at the contact, ached when it passed and tingled in her memory. That was the effect he had on her. Every time. He pulled back and went to pull a chair up to sit near her as she turned to her coffee and jello with a contented sigh. Some might consider it an odd combination, but it worked for her. She dug in with her spoon, letting the sweet fruity flavour fill her mouth.

"This is the power consumption formula figured out by that kid who dropped out of MIT to take care of his Mom?" He was looking at the formula on the screen, it was clearly incomprehensible to him.

"Yes, one of them. There are four of them, they kind of overlap and interconnect. There's something about this one that's trying to tell me something." She sighed as she took a sip of her coffee and scooped out another spoonful of jello. "From the telemetry we were receiving from the Icarus Base computers at the time of the connection attempts and then the successful wormhole establishment, this particular formula wasn't contributing much to the overall results. Mostly because of the way the dialling computer was set up to use it. I don't think Dr. Rush really figured out what its purpose was. He just knew it was a component of the whole, but not what part it played. It's a kind of regulator, we know that much, but it expresses far more strongly in the higher order dimensions than in space-time or even subspace. The effect there is almost negligible which is why I think Dr. Rush initially chose to ignore it when designing his first simulations." She'd lost him, she knew that, but he let her talk at him anyway, something he'd learned more recently, since joining SG-1. Something Jack never had learned. Sometimes, Cam knew when it was his job to be the sounding board, reflecting back or absorbing as needed.

"A kind of regulator, regulating what?" he asked the question and she was almost certain he wasn't expecting to understand the answer, but he'd gleaned a nut that was making him curious. That was how he always worked with her.

"Hmm. It smooths out energy conversion rates based on relative motion. It's definitely what allowed the wormhole to establish a connection with a ship." she explained, unconsciously going over the basics in her mind. "The regular Stargate network only has stellar drift and planetary motion to deal with, but to hit a target moving like Destiny requires this formula in order to succeed."

"Complex real-time synchronisation calculations, like Thor said." Cam prompted looking at the screen again.

"Right, which is why I started looking at it. It synchronises the motion of the target with the time-space continuum. The effect of this formula is small, but vital." she replied, finishing off her jello.

"Small in the four dimensions of space-time," Cam reiterated what she said and she nodded, "but not in the higher order dimensions." She nodded again. "Why is the effect in those dimensions so large when we're only ever going to connect with a 'gate in regular space-time?" Her brain froze. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. As she stared at the formula again the veil slipped from her eyes.

"Cameron," her voice cracked and her eyes were starting to sting, "did you..."

"Hmm?" He was sitting with his arms crossed against his chest looking at things he didn't understand and he'd asked the one question no one had ever asked. "Sorry, Sam, I know it's just gibberish to me, but-" She cut him off with her fingers against his lips when he turned to her, she followed it up with a long lingering kiss. Looking into his eyes with a huge grin when she pulled away from him.

"This formula isn't meant to perform synchronisation between the destination and space-time. It's meant to do it in hyperspace." That's what the Ninth Chevron was for.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am only playing in the world.

**T****he Ninth Chevron – Chapter 4**

Ori Supergate, above P3Y-229, June 2006

"If anyone can hear me, this is Lieutenant Colonel Carter. Please respond." Sam stared out into the darkness of infinity, but it was not empty. Angling her head to the right she could see the oblique shape of the Supergate, active, shining brightly in the void. To think of the event horizon of a regular Stargate as a pool made this a vast lake, easily a thousand meters across. Which made the four ships which only just barely fit through it truly colossal. Vastly bigger than any of the ships they so easily swatted out of the sky over four hours ago, except Kvasir's O'Neill-class ship, which still succumbed to their combined firepower in the end. The debris of those ships filled her vision from one end to the other. The jagged remnants of so many vessels. She could only see one Ha'tak still intact of the thirteen that started the battle, though it was adrift and looked dead, and she'd watched one of the 304s rip itself apart from a huge internal explosion after an Ori beam weapon tore right through its shields and cut through its hull like tissue paper, she had no idea where the second one was. She was lucky that the battle itself took place far enough away from her that none of that debris was travelling in her direction. However, she was likely to die here of asphyxiation within the next two hours. It was horrific and she was alone.

She closed her eyes. She didn't want to think about the battle. She was fairly certain it had been the Korolev which had exploded, that meant she'd lost Cam and Daniel, the odds Teal'c was alive and on that intact Ha'tak were vanishingly small. Unless that second 304 returned she was likely to join them. Still, she would try until her life support ran out.

"This is Lieutenant Colonel Carter. I'm in a spacesuit drifting free, approximately two thousand feet off the front right position on the Supergate." Her comm cut off with a pop and she waited a few moments for the reply she wasn't sure would ever come. However there was a strangled, distorted, static sound which played through her ear piece, she unconsciously tilted her head as if trying to angle it to better hear the sound. Again a static pop and thump then a voice.

"-am, it's m- ... Mitchell. Can ... hear me?" Oh my God, oh my God, ohmygodohmygod. Cam was alive. She broke out in a smile and let out a breath from her now giddy lungs as she felt her heart beating faster.

"I can't tell you how good it is to hear your voice." Her eyes were stinging and she had to blink several times to regain any composure. She hadn't realised how afraid she had been until the pall lifted from her so suddenly when she heard Cam's voice.

"Yeah, you too." She heard the relief in his voice. He wasn't able to hide it at all.

"I saw the Korolev explode." Were they on the Ha'tak? Did they ring aboard it before the 304 was destroyed? Cam's voice cut in and out over the radio, as if he was turning his head from side to side or moving away from the audio pick up.

"I had just got to the ... bay to take a 302 out when the whole sh- ... lurched underneath me, I think the anti-grav started fai- ... 'cause it felt like we were listing, if you ... believe that. I just managed to get into a 302 and started her up when the whole thing blew up behind me." Halfway through his story she heard a couple of loud thumps and the audio cleared up, he must have fixed it with the good old Mk. I Wrench, his fist banging on the radio. "A blastwave hit me from behind and tossed me around some, I must have lost consciousness." His voice was low and husky as he got to the end, she could tell he was thinking the same thing she was.

"Daniel?" she asked. Dreading the answer he was going to give.

"Still on board… I think." She smiled sadly at his equivocation. Tilting her head forward inside her helmet as much as she could she was trying not to cry. It wasn't a good idea in a space suit. Anyway it was Daniel. If anyone could come back from the dead it was him. He'd done it twice.

Nearly two hours later, after they had been hailed by a returning Odyssey and Cam had landed his 302, they were still nowhere near beaming her back on board. She'd heard Cam reporting a failure on their latest test and the short exchange between him and the Asgard, Kvasir, who it seems had managed to beam himself aboard Odyssey before his ship was destroyed.

"Time for Plan B." Oh no. They had really awful luck with Plan Bs. Oddly enough Plan Cs and Ds fared a hell of a lot better.

"Uh, if you're thinking what I think you're thinking, it won't work." If she knew Cam, and she _knew_ Cam, this Plan B would be as spectacular as it was crazy and she just knew what it was going to be, even as she heard his voice come back to her over the radio.

"Hang on, Sam. We're coming to get you." She gritted her teeth in frustration. Sometimes she hated being so smart. Cam was going to try the impossible. _That_ was his standard Plan B, so now she was staring at the low-slung head-on profile of an incoming BC-304.

"Oh boy." she muttered. She cringed and her toes curled in her boots as she saw Odyssey get bigger and bigger before her and he was still many minutes away. He was a great pilot, give him anything with a stick and maneuverability and he'd do amazing things with it. That was why she'd recommended him for the 302 program. He was a natural born pilot, but a 304 was most _emphatically_ not a 302! "Look, the sub-light engines don't have that much control. If you hit me, even at minimum velocity…"

"I'm not going to hit you, Sam." He spoke the words with far more confidence than she felt. Then she heard him mutter something under his breath. "Not on purpose." Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God! Cameron Daniel Mitchell if I die here, _like this_, I won't come back to haunt you. I. WILL. KILL. YOU. She turned her head as one of the sensor spines on the nose of the massive ship flew past at a dizzying clip. This was not good. She could see every single pockmark on the hull, every lick of paint on the whitewashed U.S.A.F. logo on the side of the neck. Every single seam between the massive armour plates and all of it moving past her at a frightening pace. She looked ahead and saw the cavernous maw of the flight bay approaching her and she gulped when she remembered the transition between the zero gee of space and the artificial gravity aboard the ship.

"Even if you get me in past the shield, the artificial gravity will kick in. A fall from even thirty feet in this suit…" she began nervously, she was starting to babble. She was entrusting her life to a fighter jock who'd never flown anything larger than a Goa'uld cargo ship. And even then he let Vala and Teal'c do the piloting most of the time.

"Sam, stop worrying. Kvasir's riding the controls manually." Stop worrying? Stop _worrying_? He wasn't the one staring at an incoming juggernaut. He wasn't the one practically immobilised in a disabled space suit with only minutes of air left. Her heart was pounding so hard she was sure her mic was picking it up and relaying it to the bridge crew on Odyssey.

"You're going too fast." came Kvasir's stern warning followed by Cam's equally stern retort.

"This tub doesn't go any slower. Initializing five percent reverse thrust." _This_ was its slowest speed? She was going to die! She saw a flash of blue start at her toes to encompass her feet then play up her legs and torso, then go over her arms and chest and head. She was inside the force field keeping the flight bay from the vacuum of space.

"Got her. Initializing twenty percent reverse thrust. Kvasir, take her down lightly." She could feel it start, it wasn't smooth, Terran engineered grav plating was still generations behind Asgard technologies and the transitions were like noticeable steps, each step making her feel heavier and bringing her down that little bit more quickly. The reverse thrust was well-timed, she was almost at rest relative to the deck below her when her heels made contact. Still, she'd been immobile in zero gee for over 6 hours and her knees were feeling weak. She twisted and buckled onto her side, her helmet hitting the deck and knocking her around a little. She sighed in relief. She'd never doubt Cam's piloting ability again. God she loved him. She blinked in surprise at that last thought.

* * *

Lakeway Airpark, Texas, Christmas Day 2008 (alternate timeline)

Cam looked out over the airfield and grinned as a smiling Sam came up behind him and slipped her arms around his waist. He turned his head to look over his shoulder and gave her a loving smile. She moved over to his side and buried her face in his neck before stepping back and walking towards the Cessna T182T he'd borrowed for the day as a Christmas gift to both Daniel and Sam.

"I'm not gonna hug you from behind... but thanks." The archaeologist's tone was amused and Cam turned to face him and clapped a hand on his shoulder, then they walked toward the tricycle geared turboprop as Sam opened the cabin door under its wing. She climbed in, using the rear landing gear as a step and took the pilot's seat for herself. Cam helped Daniel in and watched him take the co-pilot's place and he clambered in to take a seat in the back. He was the passenger today. That was his gift from them.

One of the things both he and Sam had insisted on when they were given new identities by the Air Force was clean and legal pilot's licenses. Something they'd then had doubled up thanks to Daniel's underworld connections. He found himself this small privately owned airfield on the outskirts of Austin and had managed to land himself a placing as a flying instructor on his own time, using the ID given to him by the Air Force. He'd managed to ditch his shadow with a story of going to Houston to look at a vintage 1967 Chevy Camaro SS while Sam and Daniel came into Lakeway using their underground IDs. As it was Sam doing the flying today, his name wouldn't even get onto any paperwork in connection with theirs, although it was his influence and request which got them this flight.

After pre-flight checks, Sam taxied to the end of the runway and was checking to make sure everyone was ready before take-off. She throttled up when she received clearance and smoothly pulled back on the stick to get them airborne and flying away from the airstrip nestled amid a cluster of houses, many of which included long driveways which connected to the runway itself for the residents who owned their own planes. Cam didn't own his own, but had come to know several of the residents well enough that they'd be happy to lend the affable Mitchell their plane for a little Christmas flight, even if he was from Kansas.

It was a quiet flight for each of them, the day was cool, though clear. The scenery beautiful and the view vast across the horizon. They'd been in this twisted version of their world for nearly five months, and though Sam had finished all the designs for the subspace communicator and had started assembling what parts she could months ago, they were still no closer to a solution, and their repeated attempts at convincing their handlers to allow them official contact with each other continued to fall on deaf ears. Daniel had helped brief the SEAL team tasked with retrieving the Telchak device, and Sam had been approached to help design a containment device as the Navy here were not of a mind to hand it over to aliens, as the SGC had handed it over to the Tok'ra in their own timeline. Daniel had been right about Cam's own skills, though many and varied, not being unique enough for his expertise to be called into service. He didn't hold out much hope.

After three hours of amiable chatting interspersed with companionable silence and contented scenery watching, they came back in for a landing, which Sam handled with aplomb. She taxied the plane back to the refuelling rig and they got out to take care of that and then return the plane to its owner. Daniel was looking about happily curious about all the different planes parked on the apron by the runway, while Sam and Cam turned to watch another Cessna throttle up for a take off.

"Is there a reason why all the tail numbers on these planes start with an 'N'?" asked Daniel, and the two Air Force officers looked at one another, amazed he couldn't guess the reason for himself.

* * *

Hypraxia Base, Praxyon, May 2010

Cam's head was splitting right down the middle, he was sure of it. His eyes flickered open and he let out a small dull gurgle of pain, breathing heavily with shuddering gasps. He'd never felt as awful as this waking up, even after the heaviest night of drinking. A wave of pain engulfed him and his muscles constricted involuntarily, the muscles and tendons in his neck bunched in stark relief in the half light from the flickering laptop screen saver he'd left on the night before. When he was able to breathe again he gulped in rasping breaths and the pain was gone. Just like that. He flopped back down into his bunk, breaths lurching and rattling in his chest, every muscle in his body slack and useless. He was frightened. The worst of it was he thought he knew why it had happened. He'd just woken up from a dream in which he was clearly remembering the alternate timeline created by Ba'al's interference with the time continuum. This was definitely one of those 'impossible things before breakfast' he'd heard about, except he'd done it and not simply believed in it. The dream itself didn't seem too special. A fun day spent with friends, flying, talking shop, educating Daniel about planes and flying. He froze. Educating Daniel about aviation.

He bolted out of his bunk and quickly put on his BDUs, rushing for the door and down the hall to Sam's quarters, just as he got to her door he caught sight of Daniel rounding the corner in just some sweat pants and the archaeologist skidded to a stop when he caught sight of the Air Force officer. Just then the doors to the room Sam had commandeered on base slid open and she almost ran into Cam, he grabbed at her shoulders as she recoiled from the near-collision to keep her from falling backwards over the lip of the door back into her room. His hands nestled on the bare skin of her upper arm as she raised a hand to cover her heart over her black tank top. She gasped in surprise and laughed ruefully as she shook out her sleep tousled locks.

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to see you two here." She eyed them appraisingly, as Daniel walked forward towards them. Cam looked at him and the sight of his friend's eyes told him everything he needed to know. They all three spoke in unison.

"Tail numbers."

* * *

Hypraxia Base, Praxyon, May 2010

"I see." Dr. Nicholas Rush said from Sgt. Ellison's mouth. "We dialled Destiny when she was in realspace though." He was looking at several graphs with overlaid statistics.

"And you were lucky you did, or the connection would never have worked." Sam pointed out, indicating a particular section of the graph. "I know she doesn't use hyperspace to travel at FTL speeds but she still utilises the higher order dimensions, and the way they were being used in the previous version of the dialling software wouldn't have worked at all."

"This place is pretty cool." At the sound of Airman Acheson's voice Cam turned away from the two scientists discussing things he'd only understand in dreams, and when he dreamt about Sam he'd prefer it if she weren't explaining hyperspace physics to him, although, that could be kinda sexy. Still! Acheson! Or Eli Wallace at a consciousness level.

"Yeah, you could say that, Eli." He liked the guy, even stuck at the other end of the universe he was pretty sanguine.

"And you say it monitors stellar activity in stars all across the galaxy?" He was staring up at the projected stars orbiting haphazardly at the top of the central pillar. "Any particular reason?"

"I don't know why the Ancients did at first, but I do know what you can do with it." He turned back to look at Sam at the control console, remembering the tape he'd left for himself. "You can watch for solar flares, and then use their magnetic fields to slingshot a wormhole through time." He looked back to Eli to see the amazement on his face. He grinned.

"It's a time machine?" His voice was a high pitched squeak.

"I know a DeLorean would have been cooler..." Cam teased and Eli waved him off.

"No, no this is still... this is a time machine?" Clearly flabbergasted.

"Yeah, a version of me used it to go back to 1929 to avert a Goa'uld plot to destroy Earth." Cam rubbed the back of head.

"A version of you?" Eli looked confused.

"Yeah, well, I didn't do it physically myself, and the me that did lived out his life in this timeline after he fixed everything so it kinda sorta never happened." There was a reason he didn't like to talk about it.

"So time isn't a strict progression of cause and effect." Eli breathed.

"Nope," Cam moved his hands in front of his face as if rolling around an orb between them, "it's a ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff." Eli laughed. Cam smiled. "I wish there were a way to transfer data through this connection."

"I know, my TiVo must think I abandoned it." He sighed and turned back to the two scientists still going over the graphs. "She was the captain of the ship that took me to Icarus Base."

"Yeah, Colonel Carter was assigned command of the Hammond for that mission. Now she's back home with SG-1." He smiled proudly.

"I have to admit, she's kinda-" He was cut off by a finger raised in front of his nose.

"Don't finish that thought, Eli. I don't want to have to explain to the Airman why his arms are broken." Cam intoned with a stony warning glance.

"Indeed." Teal'c breathed from directly behind Eli, the young man yelped and jumped, surprised to find over six feet of muscled Jaffa staring at him balefully and not knowing where he'd come from.

"I got it, T-man. Eli's gonna keep a respectful tongue in his mouth when he's around me," he smiled and wrapped an arm around the kid, "aren't ya, Eli?" Sometimes it was fun rattling the young'uns. Eli nodded, glancing at Teal'c nervously until he nodded to Cam and moved away, still eyeing the younger man. "Don't sweat it, kid, we're just yanking your chain... mostly." His smile was genuine and it seemed to placate the younger man. "Still, it would be better if you didn't... not around me anyway." He patted the other man on the back. Eli stared at him for several moments.

"I get it." He nodded. Cam nodded. Settled.

"Don't be so hard on the boy, Cameron. I'm sure you were the same when you were his age." Vala passed by them both with a smile and a wave to Eli which the young man returned.

"I have to admit, she's kinda-" He was cut off by a finger raised in front of his nose. _Again._

"Don't finish that thought either, Eli, at least not in front of Jackson." Cam warned him.

"Indeed." Teal'c startled the young man even worse this time around. Mere inches behind him as he spoke and no sound to indicate when he'd arrived.

"I swear! I'll be good!" He put both hands up and Teal'c raised an eyebrow before walking away. "You should really put a bell on him or something."

"What, and miss out on freaking out the newbies?" Cam grinned. "Don't think so." He settled back into watching Sam work. He could do that all day. "So what made you think the last symbol was a code and not just the Point of Origin symbol?"

"Well, to be honest, I knew it wasn't the formula, so I figured the problem had to be the address." His eyes went unfocused for a while and Cam figured he must have been remembering the briefing Sam and Daniel had given him and Dr. Rush when they'd arrived. The youngster had gotten a real kick out of meeting the Dr. Daniel Jackson from his orientation videos. "We were lucky. I mean really lucky. If what Colonel Carter said is true, and looking over her simulations I'd have to say it is, the fact we actually managed to dial Destiny at all is a miracle, that the only thing that did it was me forcing Dr. Rush to use Earth's symbol as the Point of Origin like it was listed in the Ancient database..." The young man shuddered. "I was right but for the wrong reasons. If she'd been in FTL at the time, we'd be dead." Sam was walking towards them while Dr. Rush continued to study the graphs.

"It's funny you should mention Earth's Point of Origin symbol. The one you used wasn't Earth's original symbol. The Alpha 'gate was transplanted onto Earth by Ra only ten thousand years ago." Sam was smiling, clearly enjoying being in lecture mode. "The Beta 'gate's symbol is more like an octagon with a long, thick bar under it. That was the 'gate the Ancients used when they lived on Earth millions of years ago."

"Why would a planet need more than one Stargate?" asked Eli.

"It wouldn't, but the Point of Origin doesn't identify a planet, it identifies a Stargate. Like a unique ID it can leave behind when it dials other 'gates." The back of her hand brushed Cam's and he smiled at her gently. "Also, it is used to help keep the two 'gates in synch while the connection is active, it's all relative to the fixed point of any Stargate network, in our case the galactic core, the DHD software at both ends helps to manage power, it makes the wormholes very reliable. The Ninth Chevron requires completely different software to make connections, the dialling DHD is responsible for all power management which is why it is so difficult to make the connection stable, and it uses itself as the fixed point for the frame of reference so all its work can be done with only the destination as a variable."

"So the Ninth Chevron is a Stargate network for ships essentially." Dr. Rush had joined them at last. "And we were unlucky enough to be able to connect to one on the other side of the known universe."

"We didn't know about the other addresses before your tests, Dr. Rush, you would have been the first to find out." Sam looked apologetic.

"I know, Colonel. What's done is done however, we can only try to find a way home. Supplies from the SGC by Stargate would go a long way to improving our situation, but from your notes I see you're still some way away from that." Rush was indicating her simulations playing in a loop on the monitor behind them.

"Yes, Destiny is so far away, and the power requirements to dial her so huge that we're having trouble with every simulation we run. It's not a lack of power, it's getting it all to the 'gate and doing it safely." She sighed and looked around her at the base. "This place, amazing as it is, was never designed to dial a 'gate outside this galaxy." Eli looked somewhat crestfallen for a while, before brightening up.

"Still, you're close, and if the other nine symbol addresses are closer you might be able to find something that can help." Eli looked between Rush and Sam. Cam looked at Sam for a while and ran a finger up her forearm when the look of thoughtful disappointment hadn't left her eyes. She glanced at him at his touch before turning back to the other two.

"Yes, we're close, and we're doing all we can, please believe us." she said earnestly.

"Do you have a way to test the hyperspace connection?" Dr. Rush asked as he looked between them both.

"Yeah, we have an idea about that." Cam replied, smiling at Sam.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am only playing in the world.

**The Ninth Chevron – Chapter 5**

Stargate Command, February 2007

Cam's head snapped up off his forearm and he nearly cried out at the pain. Lifting his arm he started rubbing the back of his neck, screwing up his eyes at the agony. Turning to his left he saw Sam sleeping, her face tilted slightly towards him. In repose she looked so beautiful. He'd almost lost her a couple of days ago, almost let her die without...

"Let that be a lesson to you." His head whipped around at the soft voice and he did cry out in pain that time. Dr. Lam glared at him reproachfully.

"Sorry, sorry." He looked over and saw Sam's brow furrow for a moment before settling down again. Still asleep. He sighed gently and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms against his chest.

"She'll be fine, she was awake a little while ago." Carolyn said as she busied herself around Sam's bed and then snuck another macaroon for herself. "They're very good. She tried another of your macaroons." Cam grimaced and sighed sadly. "She liked them a lot." He looked at her in surprise. Carolyn chuckled. "When you gave her some before, the medication she was on would have badly affected her sense of taste. She liked them." Cam was at a loss. She liked his macaroons. He couldn't help a grin. "She asked me not to tell you." He frowned and tilted his head in confusion and she shrugged. "Don't ask me." She patted his shoulder and walked away, greeting Vala at the door who bounded in and shooed Cam out for her own shift at Sam's bedside. It left him outside the door of the infirmary looking in at her sleeping face, wondering what was going on.

* * *

Pacific Ocean, July 2009

He had a really stupid grin on his face. She sat in the co-pilot's seat, glancing over at him and his stupid grin every once in a while, trying to decide how she got into this. She shook her head, she didn't need an answer to that. She could be hitting her head against the brick wall that was her latest project back at the SGC, getting nowhere except more frustrated. Or she could be here with him, flying over this wide blue ocean, and also getting distance from her problem, letting her think about it in different ways. Cam always managed to know when it was she needed distance from her projects. And even if she didn't, it was a beautiful day, and she was flying with Cam.

"Okay, Colonel," began Sheppard over the comm, "we like to simulate Wraith weaponry in these cert tests, since they're who we go up against most often. We don't really face anyone else who uses drone weapons now that the Asurans are gone. You won't see weapon beams but hits will be indicated by the computers we've set up inside." She saw a jumper decloak ahead of them and knew the test was going to start soon. "We're far enough away from shipping lanes now that we don't need the cloaks, we'll take turns, offense and defense, you'll have to evade me for five minutes then I'll have to evade you for five minutes. Back and forth. You all set at your end, Rodney?" A static pop came over the radio as a third connection came in.

"Yes, we're recording telemetry and for what it's worth, Lorne's in another cloaked jumper shadowing you to get video," Rodney's voice picked up with his trademarked mixture of exuberance and irritation, "though I keep telling you I can create far better simulations from the telemetry if all you want is to replay the test. _And_ you can view it from any-" Sheppard's exasperated voice cut him off.

"And I keep telling you, Rodney," the warning in his voice was unmistakable, "it's not the same." Cam looked over at her and he rolled his eyes, she had to shake her head at all of them.

"You can't set CGI to 'Danger Zone', Dr. McKay, it's not right." Cam said over his comm and Sam started laughing in her seat. He looked over to her smiling. "What, you didn't think he would actually screen it to the trainees without it, do you?"

"I guess not." She was trying to imagine a room full of SGC pilots watching a dogfight video and not having it turn into Top Gun appreciation night.

"Hard deck for this is sea level, no going under water. Test begins in five." John positioned his jumper right on Cam's six according to the tactical display being shown on the HUD. A little timer which had started with John's voice counted down to zero and Cam pitched hard right, the tactical display showing blue lines going from John's jumper just sliding past Cam's. There was no sensation of movement however, except for the view from the forward view port. For the next five minutes Cam's hand on the controls lifted, dipped and twisted, even at the same time in different directions as each control was independent of the other. At one point while in a long, shallow, banking dive with John cutting the angle on him from behind Cam started a drift and roll which pitched the craft up on its end then shooting back into the sky and John shot away past them and below, they could hear his slight curse of amazement over the radio.

She actually stopped watching the tactical display not long into the dogfight, much more interested in watching the concentration and intensity on Cam's features. She'd flown with him before, but in tandem two-seaters where she couldn't see his eyes. Eyes which glinted hard and cold, dangerous eyes. By the end of the first phase Cam had taken six hits, which if she remembered correctly from her time on Atlantis was very good, especially against John. Cam positioned himself behind John for the second phase and waited on the countdown. This was a different Cameron she was witnessing, serious, efficient, disciplined. She'd seen glimpses of it while under fire on missions with SG-1, when Cam showed them the warrior. Here he was in full glory, the deadly predator.

As soon as the countdown reached zero Cam's hands were in motion, but not those she had been expecting, he pitched down with a twist of his hands and as she looked out the forward view She saw what was happening, John's jumper was banking left and Cam was following him from a high position, rolling with his nose pointed down while the jumper drifted in an arc almost sideways over John's jumper, near-miss indicators started showing in the HUD and one or two hit indicators before John banked straight up and out of frame.

"What the Hell was that?" she asked incredulously, she'd never seen a jumper move like they had in an atmosphere. The look on Cam's face was amused for a second before returning to stony seriousness as he reacquired his target.

"Something the ship suggested. She'd been nagging me all through the first phase so I thought I'd listen for once. Not bad." His words left her feeling bewildered. Throughout the rest of the second phase Cam's jumper continued to dance around the sky sideways as often as forwards, taking advantage of the jumper's ability to control its own inertia to spin on its axis and cut its movements in one direction in favour of another almost instantly, using the same principles which allowed a jumper coming in hot through the 'gate to stop before hitting the stairs in the 'gate room, to score hit after hit on John's jumper, totalling eight over the course of his five minutes.

"Alright, I'll pass you. Not 'cause you're better than me or anything, you're not!" John declared over the comm as they cloaked and flew back to Atlantis, followed by a muttered admission under his breath. "Just afraid you might be if we kept going." After they landed in the jumper bay and disembarked they found John striding over with a glint in his eyes. "Okay, Mitchell, we're not on an open channel now, how'd you pull off some of those stunts?"

"Well, just some pointers the ship gave me, presenting various options in rapid succession until I chose one." Cam started and Sam saw John's eyes widen at the words, as hers must be. "How'd you get used to the nagging, Shep? Yap yap yap the whole time." Just as John was about to speak a voice cut in over the comm, Chuck in the control room.

"Colonels Carter and Mitchell, SGC reports representatives of the Tok'ra are requesting a meeting with SG-1, as soon as possible. General Landry says to use Daedalus." Cam looked at her in confusion and she could only shrug, taking a hold on his arm in preparation. She liked the feel of his arm under her fingers.

"Sorry, Shep, you heard the disembodied voice. Duty calls." Cam took the beacon disk from his pocket and pressed it, leaving John grimacing as he swallowed the protest he was about to utter.

* * *

USS Odyssey, above P3X-474, May 2007 + 4,723 days relative

"Were you just calling me a fool, Mr. Seaborn?" asked a severe looking man in a tailored suit before cutting away to the handsome features of the Deputy Director of Communications.

"I wasn't calling you a fool, sir, the brand new state of Georgia was." His voice was polite but his whole demeanour screamed contempt for the man he was speaking to. Cam laughed from the sofa as Sam rested her head against his arm while she lay in front of him facing the television, chuckling.

"It's not that funny, Cameron." voiced Daniel from the love seat he sat in next to Vala who watched the screen with a smile.

"You kidding me? Ain't nothing quite as funny as being able to insult a man without saying anything impolite." Cam motioned to the screen before bringing his hand back to rest against Sam's hip. She turned her head around on his bicep to look at him laying behind her, she smiled at his look. He and Daniel did enjoy these little back-and-forths.

"Indeed, Daniel Jackson," intoned Teal'c from across the small table covered with drinks and little snacks, "it takes great skill to cut down a man with words and allow no avenue for denouncement."

"I'm going to have to agree with them, Daniel." Vala nuzzled against him but he still looked at her in mock-dismay. "Oh, don't look at me like that! Just because you've learned how to shoot a gun doesn't mean your main weapons aren't the words you use."

"Woman's got a point, Daniel." Sam said and Cam turned his head to look at her, she loved using his catchphrases sometimes, it always seemed to surprise him. "Didn't I hear tell once of how you put the Ancients in their place on Atlantis? Told them off enough that Morgan le Fay admitted many shared your ideas?"

"Yeah, and we have no idea what they did to her after that." Daniel huffed. General Landry had long since paused the DVD and was happily enjoying the discussion around him. He came to movie nights for this right here, Sam smiled at him and he nodded at her. "Anyone could have said what I said, any of you could have."

"What are you talking about, Jackson?" Cameron's tone was part disbelieving, part exasperated. "Yeah, we all have words, I'll grant you that." He laid a hand on her shoulder. "Sam's words can blind you with the wonders of the universe... and confuse you a lot, sorry, baby," he kissed her hair and she smiled indulgently, "Teal'c can rouse his fellow Jaffa to battle with ease, and also he can turn them to re-examining their souls and their honour." Teal'c bowed his head at the praise. "Vala, she can talk you into giving her everything you have and make you think she's doing you a favour." Vala giggled and covered her mouth with her hands. "General Landry and I? We can inspire confidence in our men, make them believe we'll get them through the mission, but that's all, no offense, sir." General Landry shook his head.

"None taken, son, in fact I agree." The old General nodded for Cam to continue and he did.

"But you, Jackson... Daniel, your words... your words make people change their lives!" His eyes were gleaming as he spoke and Sam reached a hand up to cup his cheek. He closed his eyes for a second before continuing. Sam took the time to look at Daniel, who was looking down at his hands until Vala turned his head to face her with a hand on his cheek. "Without your words, Daniel, would O'Neill not have detonated that nuclear bomb on Abydos instead of aboard Ra's ship? Wouldn't he-"

"Be dead?" Daniel finished for him, looking somewhat stricken. "Jack did that himself, Cameron, not me. Words are words. Nothing more."

"Words are power, Daniel Jackson. Colonel Mitchell is correct in this. It was not just O'Neill telling me he could save those people on Chulak that caused me to join the Tau'ri cause." All eyes had turned to the Jaffa as he spoke. "It is not just the words you speak, but the words you understand. When I asked where you were from you understood what I was truly asking. By drawing the symbol of the Tau'ri in the sand that day, you changed my life."

"Your words have changed all our lives." Sam's words were spoken softly, but she hoped he would understand the feeling behind them.

* * *

Hypraxia Base, Praxyon, June 2010

Sam watched the rippling blue event horizon with a sense of abject wonder. She'd done it. She'd established a connection to the nine symbol address of Atlantis while the city was in hyperspace just beyond the edge of the galaxy. This facility could definitely do it. She glanced at the console and checked off several indicators, it was stable, power levels were also nominal. She turned her grin to Cam standing next to her and noticed a whole group of scientists were cheering behind him staring at the event horizon. It was only when he turned to her that she could see his shining eyes, his countenance was all military discipline and efficiency but his eyes as he looked at her said he was proud of her and that realisation left her feeling slightly weak.

"Great job, Sam." He touched her shoulder for a moment and it was as if she was filled with energy again. She raised a hand to cover his fingers on her shoulder and smiled. A sergeant came running up to them and Cam walked over to take what he was holding. Sam smiled and walked up next to him to head towards the 'gate, where a comm station was set up and the radio was already blaring.

"Hello? Who is this? Identify yourselves and could you please tell us how you are doing this?" She grinned at the incredulity in Dr. Rodney McKay's voice, she tapped the comm at her ear to connect her with the radio system and smiled at what they were about to do. She and Cam stepped in front of the camera pickup and she waved at Rodney's look of amazement.

"Hey McKay." She nodded at Mr. Woolsey to one side of Rodney and grinned at Colonel Sheppard on his other side. Sheppard looked a bit flushed, he'd obviously just run from somewhere else, not expecting an incoming wormhole while in hyperspace en route back to the Pegasus Galaxy. "Mr. Woolsey, Colonel Sheppard. Greetings from Hypraxia Base." Beside her, Cam waved into the pickup.

"Hey Shep. You still owe me twenty from the Superbowl spread buddy, didja really think you could skip galaxy and get away from me?" Cam declared to Sheppard's grin before an increasingly irritated Rodney broke in.

"You haven't answered my question, Samantha. How are you doing this?" he demanded, leaning into the view, John rolled his eyes behind him and turned away slightly. Woolsey sighed heavily. "We are in hyperspace. What you are doing is impossible!"

"Oh, you know me, Rodney, I blow up suns on my days off, the impossible is merely commonplace." She hoped desperately no one brought up the fact that Rodney had destroyed an entire solar system, or possibly, an entire alternate reality. The man was a far greater menace than she was. He was sputtering at her and she turned to Cam for him to take over.

"Actually, Dr. McKay, we have something here of yours which you forgot to take with you. If you'd just go down to the 'gate and sign for it, that would be super." He was really laying it on thick. Sheppard had turned to look at the camera again when Mitchell started talking and the two of them must have shared some communication between them because John grabbed Rodney's elbow and began dragging the protesting scientist away from camera.

"You heard the Colonel, Rodney, when are you gonna learn not to forget stuff?" He was long out of picture before Mr. Woolsey turned to look at the camera once and then turned away to follow them, leaving Sgt. Chuck Campbell looking at them nervously.

"Sergeant, could you turn the camera around to face the Stargate, please." Sam smiled at him and her former 'gate tech's eyes lit up.

"Yes, ma'am." He got up and she saw the picture wobbling and tilting for several seconds before coming back to rest pointing at the stained glass above the 'gate, then tilting down and sideways slightly to get the 'gate and the three men waiting in front of it in view. As he did that she keyed in her IDC. "Receiving SG-1's IDC, lowering the shield." She saw the shimmering iridescence slip away from in front of the event horizon.

"Thanks, Chuck." she whispered. She turned to Cam and he was practically grinning his ears off, he studied the screen for a moment, scrutinising everything before going to stand in front of the 'gate. Just then she heard Rodney yelling again and he reconnected his radio.

"Carter! What is going on? How are you doing this?" He was staring at the shimmering blue 'gate and she could just imagine the face he was making, hard edged, chin sticking up indignantly.

"Oh, I just dialled Atlantis' nine symbol 'gate address." She grinned as she saw him freeze and she could imagine the face he was making now too, eyes glazed over, looking up in confusion and momentary wonder. Just then she saw a bright yellow oblong come flying out of the event horizon, spinning and tumbling and headed straight for Rodney, Cam's aim was perfect. It would have hit the stunned scientist in the face had John, standing next to Rodney, not stuck his hand out and caught the lemon in his palm. He held it between his thumb and index finger in front of Rodney's face and started laughing. Rodney finally noticed it and recoiled backwards in horror, stumbling and falling on his backside.

"Package received, Hypraxia Base." came Sheppard's incredibly amused voice. "We'll make sure Rodney doesn't forget it again." Rodney was sputtering and flailing on the ground as Ronon was helping him to stand. The large Satedan was also clearly enjoying this.

"Atlantis sends congratulations on a successful test, Colonels." came Mr. Woolsey's crisp voice, she knew him well enough now to know he was laughing on the inside.

"Hey Mitchell, did you really just dial a nine symbol address just to send Rodney a death threat?" Sheppard asked into his comm, waving the lemon in front of a clearly agitated Rodney. Cam had come back to stand by the monitor and tapped his own comm.

"Oh, you know, Shep, keep the man on his toes, and since you guys are still close by it was a good power test without a lot of drain." he explained happily.

"Copy that, I'll get you your twenty bucks next time I see you I swear. You know I'm good for it, Atlantis out." Sheppard signalled to the balcony and Sam hurriedly signed off before the 'gate was disconnected.

"Godspeed Atlantis, Hypraxia Base out."

* * *

Hypraxia Base, Praxyon, June 2010

For the next test a few days later they'd decided to use another one of the addresses which used the Beta 'gate point of origin symbol. One of the three addresses which were identical apart from the ninth symbol itself. Sam sighed happily as the wormhole engaged and shimmered blue within its enclosing ring. She prodded Cam who immediately ordered a MALP to be sent through. The scientists who were still cheering as they had after the Atlantis attempt's success, settled down slightly and the little rover started moving into the event horizon. They turned to the monitor and watched it appear on the other side into darkness, switching on the illumination on the little vehicle showed a large space, swivelling the camera from side to side revealed a raised balcony to the side of the gate with sweeping staircase leading up to it, on the balcony they could see what looked like control consoles. The MALP would have a little trouble getting up there but it would manage. So far so good.

"This is good, Sam," Cam stood close to her as he spoke, "how sure are you that interface you cooked up with Dr. Rush's help will allow us to interact with any systems remotely?" She watched the rover's video feed for a moment as it approached the console.

"Fairly certain, he helped us build it while he was here. If we can find the correct interface ports we'll be able to gain control of those consoles." Sam glanced at him and nodded. He smiled and turned to the feed himself. As she watched the video, doubts began to creep into her mind. The motifs of the design didn't remind her of the way Destiny was described.

"Uh, guys?" Jackson called over from beside the ancillary console. "Something's off here." He pointed at the power usage display and both Cameron and Sam went to look. Cameron ran a finger along the display and pressed a few buttons which sequenced through several different views before settling on one.

"That's not right." The frown creasing Cam's face surprised Sam for a moment, she still wasn't quite used to the fact that he could read Ancient. "We were expecting..." His voice trailed off in consternation.

"I know." replied Daniel. "I mean, I'm not a physicist, but even I can tell _that_," he indicated the display, "is not what we were expecting." Sam looked down and checked the display herself, she couldn't read it, but a power usage display was a power usage display in any language and once you had an idea of scale... this definitely wasn't right. Dr. Lee ambled over still grinning and took a while to register the serious faces of the three SG-1 members while he looked at notes on a pad.

"Great job, guys, atmospheric readings are not good but then again, power readings over there are very low so it could be in some sort of standby mode, once we can confirm the interface is properly-" He finally looked up from his little list of notes to see they were practically ignoring him. "Uh, guys? What's wrong?" Sam turned to him seeing the stirrings of concern in his eyes.

"Bill, how far are we from Earth?" she asked, knowing the answer but wanting to confirm it.

"Uh, about thirty-two hundred light years give or take. This place is in the neighbourhood so to speak." He looked confused, but Sam was already doing some calculations in her head. She turned to Cam with wide eyes, it was a large area but knowing their luck... Cam's lips tightened into a thin line and he reached for the comm in his ear. Sam turned to head for the MALP control station.

"You know it's a bit creepy how you two are already doing the silent communication thing." Daniel muttered before returning to looking at the display and pulling at his lower lip. Sam flushed slightly but said nothing.

"Sam, get the MALP's beacon going, max output." Cam ordered for Daniel's benefit, she nodded and smiled with a wave over her shoulder as he turned to face the monitor and tapped the comm. "Odyssey, this is Mitchell, come in."

"Colonel Mitchell, this is Odyssey, what news on the dialling attempt?" came the expectant reply of the battlecruiser's commander as he swivelled his seat to face the comm screen on the port bulkhead of his bridge.

"Well, Colonel, it's hinky." Mitchell looked at Sam by the other console and she confirmed the MALP's beacon was active with a nod, she began walking back to his side, Dr. Lee was staring between the three of them in great confusion.

"Hinky?" Hendricks looked as confused as Bill. "Is there a problem?"

"The 'gate is active and we've sent a MALP, but..." He frowned slightly. "Could you please relay a message to Apollo in Earth orbit, have it scan for a MALP beacon." The ship's commander acknowledged the request with a wary look and signed off. Cam's eyes told her everything she needed to know. He was absolutely certain. This was just how it worked with SG-1. Bill's eyebrows suddenly shot up his forehead and his eyes widened precipitously. He turned between each of them unable to speak for several seconds.

"You think the MALP is on Earth?" he asked in a rather high pitched squeak. Cam turned from Daniel to Sam, but before any of them could answer, Cam's radio squawked into life once more and the monitor lit up to display the bridge on Odyssey.

"Colonel Mitchell, this is Odyssey, Apollo confirms MALP beacon detected in the vicinity of Earth, they haven't pin-pointed it yet but they think it's coming from the Moon. Copy?"

"Copy that Odyssey, thanks, Mitchell out." Cam replied and let his arm drop to his side as they all stared at the still active Stargate which was drawing only enough power to sustain a wormhole to Sol.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am only playing in the world.

**The Ninth Chevron – Chapter 6**

Stargate Command, June 2007

He was frowning in his sleep. His brows were turned down right against his closed eyes and small lines had formed between them, his lips were drawn a little tightly, the corners curving down. She caught a little movement and glanced down at his hand. It was clenched into a fist, grasping the sheet between the fingers, shifting involuntarily. Her eyes flicked up again and she caught the tiny shake of his head. She closed her eyes a moment and raised her hand to his forehead, drawing her fingers lightly over the skin. His breath came in a tightly through his nose and she froze, afraid she'd woken him, but there was no other change. Why had she done that anyway? Why was she doing it again? Her fingers moved on their own across his brow and pushed some of his short fringe back. Whatever had caused her to do that it was having an effect on him. His forehead had smoothed, his breathing had softened, his hand had unclenched. She sighed, bringing her hand back resolutely to her lap as she sat on the stool by his bed.

The nurses had all said 'thank you' for the macaroons she had made, Cam had allowed each of them one, and only one. They described him holding the bag protectively to his chest as he dispensed them and it just sounded so funny she couldn't help but giggle. Carolyn had been forced to confiscate the bag, she'd told her earlier, or he would have eaten them all by now and he shouldn't be eating so much so soon after an injury. Sam hoped Carolyn wasn't just helping herself to them. She had made them for Cam after all. She needed to know what he thought of them, so she could tell him what she thought of his.

He'd been so badly injured by Marrick aboard Odyssey, they'd treated him in the ship's infirmary and he'd been unconscious most of the way back to Earth. She had to admit she'd been worried for a while. When she looked down she found her hand over his, unaware she had moved it. She pulled it back again to her lap. She really didn't want to wake him. He needed rest. She nearly jumped at the small groan that escaped his lips as his eyes fluttered open. He was frowning again, and it looked slightly adorable. Her breath hitched when she realised what she'd just thought. Stupid crush. He must have heard it because when she looked up again he was watching her, his blue eyes gentle, a soft smile on his lips.

"Hey." she said softly with a smile of her own.

"Hey yourself." he replied rather scratchily. She reached for the water cup by his bed and held it for him so he could drink from the straw. He nodded to her when he was done. "The macaroons were good, Doc stole them from me."

"I know." she consoled him. "She'll give them back, she promised me." She smiled again.

"I like how you used dark chocolate. Thanks for baking them for me, I know it must be tough to get it right not liking them yourself." His eyes were sparkling, which set off a little alarm in her head but she squelched it. "I'll give you my Grandma's recipe, I'm sure you can do it justice." Her eyes widened in response. She didn't know what to say. "Course you should wait until I get injured again to make 'em." She frowned and he chuckled lightly. "I don't wanna push you into making them or anything, I know you're not fond of 'em." She sighed deeply. The insufferable man.

"I'd be happy to make them for you when you're _not_ injured." she offered and he raised an eyebrow. Her eyes widened in realisation of what she said. "I didn't... mean... I just..." She gritted her teeth and closed her eyes. "I don't want you to use it as an excuse to get beat up or shot!" She lowered her head and could feel the heat of her skin. Insufferable man. She heard him chuckling and looked up to glare at him. "Shut up!" She poked him lightly in the ribs and he grimaced. That will teach him.

"I know, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you think that," he looked at her and his eyes seemed bluer than she'd seen them before, "but I'd like to use it as comfort food, you know?" She had to smile at that. "Something I can look forward to when I'm stuck here." She sighed and nodded.

"I would be honoured to use your grandmother's recipe." She had to return his smile, it was so child-like she could barely stand it. "What?"

"She'd love to hear you say that." His eyes were sparkling dangerously again. "Maybe some day, huh?" She felt a slight tug somewhere deep inside.

* * *

Stargate Command, August 2007

She ran a hand along the lab bench and sighed. She wasn't making this easy for herself. She'd left this place before, why was it so much harder now? It felt completely different this time. She couldn't fathom why. She was going to Atlantis, she should be so excited, she _was_ excited, but not how she thought she'd be. It felt... she couldn't put it into words. She had to believe in herself it was time. Believe it _for_ herself. She sighed, remembering the day the rest of SG-1 had been informed, it was not supposed to have happened that way, she was supposed to have been able to tell them herself, to tell Cam herself. Instead Woolsey had told them in the middle of the debriefing of the trip to Pegasus from which she'd just returned. In the moment it happened she couldn't believe he'd done it. Everyone had been stunned, then excited, they'd congratulated her. Everyone except Cameron. He'd been silent. Seriously, dangerously... silent. He'd mustered up the words eventually, spoken the usual platitudes, but something was terribly, horribly wrong. She had been furious with Woolsey. When she looked at General Landry after the meeting broke up she knew he was furious too.

The next day she'd heard that Cam had nearly gotten himself put on report for disrespecting the General. She'd been off base when it had happened, but Walter had said it was bad. Very, very bad. The General had ordered him to take the rest of the week off and he'd stormed out. Daniel had been seriously worried, going after him to make sure he got home. Vala, of all people, had called her to tell her that she thought Cameron was going to do something stupid. When she'd called Teal'c to find out more he'd simply told her Cam would be better left alone for a while. She'd listened to him, but maybe she shouldn't have. Maybe she should have... what? What could she have done? This was completely unlike the Cam Mitchell she knew. Respect for the chain of command was a part of his DNA practically, she'd had no idea what could have set him off. Not until she'd figured it out later, but she hadn't actually spoken to him while he was on leave, and after he came back she felt as if she'd missed her chance completely. When he returned he came to see her to explain that he wasn't angry with her, but with the IOA. He told her he understood what a huge opportunity this was for her. She wished at the time he had been angry with her, he'd had a member of his team taken from him without the chance to do anything about it. She hadn't even talked to him about it first. When she realised that, when she remembered the way things had been when he first took over SG-1, she'd felt so ashamed to have done that to him. He should have been angry with her, she was angry with herself after all.

Now it was the last day and she'd barely spoken to him since. She passed by her chair where her dress jacket hung from the back. She found the eagle pinned to one of the shoulders, running a finger over it. She remembered the look in his eyes as he'd pinned those eagles on her epaulettes, like he was filled to bursting with pride and honour. It had meant so much to him. Just two months ago. Two months since _she'd_ pinned the eagles to _his_ epaulettes as well. When she looked into his eyes as she snapped the stud of the eagle to fasten it, he looked as if he couldn't believe it, as if he was living a dream, and the feelings that had stirred up within her were hard to describe. She'd been unable to calm down at all the rest of the day, her mind would drift off at random and she'd see his eyes again in her mind, looking at her, those intense, clear blue eyes.

"My best day." The voice from her door startled her and she spun around. He leant against her door frame, his face so serious, his eyes so intense and dark.

"What?" she asked in confusion.

"When I pinned those on your shoulders. My best day. I've never done anything more satisfying, that made me feel prouder." His voice was low and soft and... frightening.

"Come on, Cam, you can't mean that." She smiled, but it fell from her lips immediately when she saw the look of pain which flashed across his eyes. "Cameron..." He looked down and she couldn't speak. The words wouldn't come.

"You know I think you're the best officer I've ever served with." His voice was barely above a whisper.

"I know." She could feel her eyes stinging.

"You know I'm certain you'd succeed at anything you set your mind to. No doubt in my mind." His eyes were fierce, the faith she saw in them was overwhelming.

"I know." Of course she knew these things. She was having trouble breathing.

"You know I'd never want to hold you back from-" He was clenching his jaws and balling his fists, moving from the doorway he walked into her lab a few steps before stopping and facing some equipment on her shelf, staring at it intently. "-from what you had to do. From doing what is best for you." He looked at her for just a split second and the look of fear in his eyes nearly made her knees buckle. She'd only witnessed it for a moment, he'd been living with that for two weeks? Her heart started pounding hard in her chest.

"I know that, Cam." She took a step towards him only to stop when she saw her hands were trembling slightly.

"You know..." He was looking at her shelves again, his jaw struggling with forming the words. "I think you belong on SG-1, your home is SG-1. With us... with..." Again just the briefest flash of his eyes and she was nearly undone.

"I know. Cam," she was about to take another step, but he had moved back to the door, one hand on the frame as he faced away from her, looking over his shoulder, she could only whisper the last, "I know."

"I won't give up, give _you_ up." He walked out her door, her room shrunk, imploding on itself, she took a shuddering breath and had to hold up a hand to her chest at the sudden ache she was feeling.

"I know." she said, to herself more than anything. Several moments passed before she could straighten up and look around again at her surroundings. She picked up her jacket from the back of the chair and put it on, folded a last item of clothing into her case and closed it only to find Teal'c at her door when she turned around. As good-byes went, her farewell with the Jaffa warrior was heartfelt but easy, so she almost flinched when she saw Cameron leaning against the door to the 'gate room as she walked there with Teal'c. He just shared a look with the Jaffa who glanced her way before bowing his head, he walked inside, taking her case, leaving her staring into Cam's blue eyes for several moments. "Cam, I'm not..." She shook her head, unsure what she wanted to say, unsure what she was even feeling. She looked at him again to see him holding something out to her. It was the largest macaroon she'd ever seen, easily four inches across, and wrapped in cellophane. She couldn't help her eyes beginning to water and her lips trembling as she reached for it and held it to her chest.

"I know you don't like them, that's why I only made the one, but-" He was interrupted in mid-sentence when she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face against his shoulder. He sighed and wrapped his arms around behind her, holding her tightly, resting his chin on her shoulder. "If you fall, Sam, I will be there to catch you, I swear. No matter what. I will move Heaven and Earth. Remember the last time I caught you?" She nodded into his neck. "I used a ninety thousand ton battlecruiser to do it. I'd do anything for you, Sam." She was gripping the back of his BDUs in her balled up fists. "I mean it."

"I'll come back, Cam, I promise I will." She pulled away and looked into his eyes, seeing absolute faith reflected in them.

"I know." He let her go, and every instinct she had was telling her that single act had been the hardest thing he had ever done in his entire life.

* * *

Charleston, South Carolina, March 2009 (alternate timeline)

They walked down the tree-shaded street, little more than an alley in truth, nestled in the southern end of the Charleston Peninsula. She could smell the scents of Charleston Harbour as she looped her arm with Cam's and leaned against him slightly. He'd been quiet the last few minutes as they got closer to the town house owned by his grandmother in another timeline, he'd checked and she owned it in this one too. Sam thought maybe the familiarity was getting to him. Familiarity combined with the certainty the woman they were about to see would not know him at all.

"Cam?" She gave his arm a squeeze as he turned to her. "I don't hate macaroons." He raised his eyebrow. "It was the medication I was on, and when Carolyn clued me in and I tasted one again I loved it, but... I didn't want you to think I was... Urg I don't know what I was thinking. Just that I wanted to make you understand without having to persuade you." He was smiling in that way of his that set off her alarms. "What?"

"I know." he said softly and her eyes widened. "Doc Lam told me. I don't know why you didn't want to tell me but I figured you would eventually."

"You knew? Then why haven't you said anything?" She was leaning away slightly looking at him askance.

"'Cause it was fun teasing you about it, offering you Grandma's recipe, getting macaroons from you that you'd obviously enjoyed yourself." That grin on his face was irritating and she reached up to pinch his cheek. "Ow ow ow!" He grabbed her hand and kissed her fingers before leaning down and kissing her. "Thank you for telling me." She sighed and leant her head against his shoulder.

"You've been quiet. Are you worried." She felt him sigh and he let his cheek rest against the top of her head.

"I know she won't know me. She might not even recognise the name Mitchell, but my Grandma is a true Southern gentlewoman. She will see us if we call on her." He let go of her hand and put his own back in his pocket while they continued walking. They stopped in front of a brick town house with shutters and gables painted in a lustrous white, on the second floor above the door there was a long balcony which stretched along the side of the building. The door itself rested at the top of several small steps with antique ironwork banisters on either side, painted in the same black as the door itself. A heavy brass knocker took a place of prominence in the center of the door. Cam stepped up and used it then moved down to stand by Sam again, taking her hand. After a few moments the door swung inwards and the head of a young twenty-something girl poked out to inspect them, looking them up and down. Sam looked at Cameron and saw the recognition in his eyes.

"Yes? May I help you?" the young woman asked of them before a voice could be heard from inside that made Cam freeze beside her.

"Who is it, Maddie? Is it Mrs. Deveaux?" The voice held authority and certainty. Someone sure of themselves and their place. The young woman looked at them in apology for a moment before turning her head back inside.

"No, Miss Routledge, I don't recognise them myself." She turned back to them and was opening her mouth when the voice returned.

"Well do find out, child. Visitors shouldn't be kept waiting." Cam couldn't stifle a grin at that and the woman was rolling her eyes with a sigh.

"My name is Cameron Mitchell," he began, then indicated Sam, "and this is my wife, Samantha." It still gave her goosebumps to hear him call her his wife. "We were wondering if Miss Routledge could spare us a few moments of her day. It's possible she may remember one of my kin from before the war. A Stephen Mitchell, he lived in this area for a while." The girl nodded and asked them to wait, a short muffled discussion occurred behind the half closed door which picked up when the name 'Mitchell' was mentioned, and became more excited when the 'Stephen' was added. They were ushered into the small foyer which led off to the sitting room to their left and held the staircase up to the second floor beyond it. A tall, slender woman with fine white hair held tightly with hair clips, came in from the back, the kitchen it seemed, as she was drying her hands with a dish cloth, which she handed to the young woman. Her features were sharp but elegant, her green eyes piercing and canny. She looked long and hard at Cam for several moments before giving them both a small polite smile.

"How do you do, I'm Emily Routledge. You said your names are Cameron and Samantha? May I call you that?" They nodded at her enquiry. "And you're related to Stephen Mitchell?" She held out a hand to Cam which he took and shook, and afterwards doing the same with Sam.

"How do you do, Miss Routledge. Yes, ma'am, he was my first cousin, twice removed, my grandfather's cousin. They played together as kids back in Boston." he explained their cover to her and the elderly woman nodded with interest.

"Yes, I knew him. I knew him very well. Please, come in to the sitting room." She lead the way inside the comfortable space, bathed in the subdued light from the window, mostly shaded by the trees in front of the house. Several antique chairs surrounded a Dutch style coffee table and she indicated a small settee across from a large chair which she sat in herself. Cam had already been moving towards it, obviously familiar with it. She offered them tea which they accepted and she asked the young woman, Maddie, to fetch some.

"My Grandpa told me stories about him, but they covered only until just before the war. We were passing through Charleston this weekend on holiday and Samantha," he looked at Sam fondly, "reminded me that he used to live here for a spell. That he spoke of a Miss Routledge, whom he was courting at the time." She could see the old woman's eyes misting over slightly. "I'm sorry if this is difficult, Miss Routledge, but we don't know much of what happened to him after that. My Grandpa was stationed in Norfolk just before hostilities began and they lost touch." The old woman nodded several times in silence until Maddie came in with a plate of macaroons, Sam couldn't help but smile, Cam looked at them oddly.

"Please, help yourselves, we baked them for the church meeting tomorrow, there are plenty to go around." She was obviously taking the time to compose herself and Sam reached over to take some, handing one to Cam who hadn't made a move. When he smiled at her softly and took a bite of it his eyes were shimmering.

"He wrote about your macaroons." Cam said softly, his voice laden with emotion. "He was right." Emily Routledge raised a hand to cover her mouth as she blinked her eyes rapidly. Sam looked at her in alarm and both she and Cam were getting up, but the old lady waved them back down.

"I'm sorry, please forgive this old woman her lack of propriety." She breathed in and out to calm herself as Maddie returned with the tea and looked at them in alarm, she came in hurriedly and put the tea service down. "I'm fine, Maddie, I'm fine." She was quiet again until the young woman left. "You're correct, Stephen was courting me. He was a fine man, set to become an officer in the Navy. An aviator. His father died at sea before the outbreak of the war in Europe. He was in the Merchant Marine. No one knows what happened to him. Just a distress signal before his ship disappeared in the Arctic Sea. Stephen's mother was devastated." She was looking down at her hands, fingers rubbing together. "Stephen came to tell me that he had to return to Boston, that his mother needed him, but that he would return. I didn't find out what happened until months later. The airplane he was on, crashed in the Atlantic, just south of Massachusetts. I nearly went mad. To lose her husband and then her son right after? I can't imagine how much worse it was for Mrs. Mitchell." She closed her eyes and Cam was doing the same. Sam took a hold of his hand and lifted it to her lips. When Emily Routledge spoke again there was a quality of sadness in her voice which was undeniable, they turned to look at her and saw her green eyes sparkling from within unshed tears. "When I look at you, Cameron. I see him clearly. The resemblance is very strong." She turned towards Sam as a tear rolled down her cheek. "Please take care of him, Samantha, if he is anything at all like my Stephen then I know he is a very good man." Sam nodded her head, unable to speak.

* * *

Charleston, South Carolina, July 2010

She was looking down a narrow street with trees overhanging the road, making it seem more like an alley. The houses on either side were made of brick and lined with wooden shutters and balustrades on their balconies, built at the turn of the previous century. She'd never been here, but she remembered it. She remembered that gate which led to the house with the brass lanterns on either side of the green door. She remembered that covered driveway which ran next to the house with blue shutters. She remembered it clearly now.

"Deja vu?" Cam asked from beside her and she nodded, her eyes wide with disbelief. "So you remember the trip we made here in the alternate timeline." She nodded once more gripping his arm a little tighter. "Don't pinch my cheek this time when you tell me about your non-dislike of macaroons, okay?" She laughed and reached a hand to his face with an evil grin and he chuckled and leaned out of her reach.

"You've been teasing me this whole time. You deserve a little face stretching." She settled for elbowing him in the ribs. They'd returned from Praxyon the previous week and briefed Generals Landry and O'Neill on what they'd found. Jack told them he was going to discuss things with the President and to assume there would be a mission and they would be on it, but that they deserved a break after five months off-world. Cam decided it was time for Sam to meet his family. Sam had already met his parents and they were overjoyed to see her again when they visited the farm for several days. Cam had made a big deal about how she was supposed to ask her Mom for her permission since she had refused to get down on one knee after he recovered from his gunshot wound. She was amazed he could tease her about things that happened while he had a bullet lodged in his chest. He'd also made a big deal about her apologising to his grandmother for not liking macaroons, which now it seemed was all an act to allow him to tease her some more.

She'd woken up the last morning they'd spent on the farm in pain, similar to when she, Cam and Daniel had dreamt of their Christmas Day flight in the alternate reality. As best as she could guess, assimilating the memories from that timeline was... difficult. The connection to the Deep Core was obviously still in effect to some degree, perhaps because they were travelling through the Stargate when the timeline was revising itself. "Did you dream about it too then?" He nodded. "Were you... in pain when you woke up?" He looked at her and nodded once more. She sighed. "Do you think we'll remember everything eventually?" He stopped under one of the trees and embraced her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. She smiled slightly and buried her face in his neck, grasping the back of his shirt in her hands.

"I'm sorry, baby, if I could keep you from reliving that, I would." She shook her head and pulled back to look at him.

"I'm not worried about that, Cam. I've faced my own death so many times that it doesn't get to me like that." She looked into his eyes as his brows furrowed. "I'm worried about _you_ reliving it. Seeing me die, not just hearing it described." She pulled her arms in and cupped his cheeks with them. "I'll be here if you do, Cam. I'll be right here." He nodded and she kissed him deeply. A surreptitious cough from an older gentleman passing by walking his dog broke them up. He smiled at them slyly and they had to chuckle to themselves before Cam took her hand again and led her to the brick walled house with the black door. This time when Cameron knocked the response was almost immediate. A melodious voice called out they were coming, before dropping into a slight contretemps with another voice, detailing how they were perfectly capable of opening the door to their own home, especially to greet their grandson. The door swung inwards to show beaming features at once familiar and never before seen.

"Cameron, my dear!" An old lady with elegant features immediately enveloped Cam in thin arms and planted kisses firmly on both his cheeks. He was chuckling to himself at the typical treatment. The woman turned her eyes to Sam and they softened and the smile which creased her lips was warm and heartfelt. "You must be Samantha, he's told me all about you, child." Sam hoped to God he hadn't or he'd be up on several Federal felony charges. Sam soon found herself wrapped in the woman's arms with her own cheeks being kissed. "You're just how he described you, dear. Lovely." Sam smiled and reached into her bag, producing a small decorative cloth pouch, tied with ribbon and handed it to Emily Mitchell. "This smells like... Cameron, did you give Samantha my recipe?" Cam was looking at Sam in surprise and she simply grinned at him.

"Uh, yes ma'am. Sam makes me macaroons when I have to spend time with the docs." he said as they were ushered inside and Maddie poked her head out from the kitchen and waved to Cameron before disappearing again. Emily's features screwed up in concern at the mere thought of her grandson being injured. She must be remembering hearing about his crash.

"Oh, Cameron, I know you love flying but I wish you could find a safer job. You're in the Air Force too aren't you, Samantha? Cameron tells me you're a scientist." She was opening the bag and fishing out a macaroon, looking critically at the texture and finish before taking a bite and beaming enthusiastically at Sam. "Cameron, have you-" Sam held up her hand showing the ring Cam had given her. "Oh my! I'm so happy! Maddie! Cameron's found her!" Cam couldn't help chuckling at the excited cries from the kitchen. They were ushered into the sitting room and Sam found herself gravitating to the settee she remembered before actually being directed to take a seat. "Oh, I want to hear everything, understood? Cameron says you met at the Academy, Samantha," at that moment a frown developed on the older woman's brow as she scrutinised Sam for a while before turning to Cam, "are you sure, Cameron? Isn't this the girl you met at the barbecue in McLean when you turned eight?"

"Huh?" Cameron looked at his grandmother askance.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am only playing in the world.

**The Ninth Chevron – Chapter 7**

Former capital, Kelowna, Langara, June 2008

"Time for Plan B!" Cam yelled to the small group he was leading as they returned fire from behind cover at a group of Jaffa across the courtyard, who were cutting them off from the Stargate. He slipped the spent magazine of his P90 from its housing and took out another clip from his vest, sliding it in and slapping it into place.

"SG-1 doesn't have a good track record with Plan Bs." Jonas Quinn aimed his own Kelownan rifle and fired off a quick burst before ducking back behind cover as several staff blasts, striking the concrete blocks in front of him, caused shards of debris to shower over them.

"Of this I am well aware." replied Cameron as he himself took aim for a quick burst at the enemy. "And we had such a good Plan A. It worked, damn it!" He took cover again as a staff blast sizzled overhead to strike the building behind them, shaking a flurry of dust and rock to sweep down over the reason for their presence on Langara. Ba'al sat nonchalantly against an overturned vehicle partly embedded into the wall, his hands tied behind his back, under the watchful gaze of Kianna Cyr, who had her zat'nik'tel trained on him. On the roof of the building sat a cloaked cargo ship belonging to Ba'al, which he was using to pilfer the unsecured stockpiles of naquadria in the abandoned former capital of Kelowna. After the departure of the Ori, the Kelownan government had demurred from reoccupying the former capital, which a Prior had wiped of all life in one of their displays of the power of the Ori. They also didn't feel the need to secure the stockpiles of naquadria or the Stargate, believing them to be safe. Something Jonas Quinn, in his position as leader of the Resistance to the Ori occupation, had protested vehemently, taking a small cadre of his own men to the desolate city to do the job himself, eventually going so far as requesting aid from the SGC when it appeared they were about to have a very familiar visitor.

"You did not truly believe you could capture me, did you, Colonel Mitchell? I am a god." The Goa'uld smirked as he looked at SG-1's leader before turning back to Kianna with a sweet smile. She grimaced in distaste at her former master, who had implanted a symbiote in her in order to turn her into a spy.

"Quiet from the peanut gallery." Mitchell was trying to think. They needed to get around the Jaffa.

"You know, maybe we should skip Plan B? Go straight to Plan C." offered Daniel, reloading his own P90 from his spot over by another two members of Quinn's Kelownan Resistance.

"Wouldn't be Plan C then would it? It would be Plan B by definition." countered Kianna from her spot beside Vala as she kept her eyes on the captured System Lord.

"That depends on your school of thought, do you number plans by when you came up with them or when they are enacted." Daniel rebutted then chuckled. "Sam would call it compile time versus execution time."

"Do we have a Plan M?" asked Vala with a mischievous smile. "We could go with Plan M."

"Is that not the plan in which Daniel Jackson dies, Vala Mal Doran?" asked Teal'c from her other side while keeping the Jaffa beyond them pinned behind cover.

"Okay, Plan M is a bad plan." Daniel muttered.

"This is not a heist show!" Cam glared at his friends while secretly laughing on the inside. They knew he was too. Maybe he shouldn't have let them watch that screener DVD he got from the showrunner last night. Meeting Martin Lloyd had been good for something at least.

"Ah, I do so enjoy watching SG-1 work." Ba'al gave them an oily smile and they all turned to glare at him. "I do wish Colonel Carter were here. I'm sure the banter would take on an altogether different frisson."

"Back in two weeks. Did I mention that already?" asked Cam while his mind continued to race.

"A few times, yes." replied Jonas with a bright smile.

"Looks like Ba'al knows some French too." muttered Vala as she squeezed off a burst of P90 fire from cover before ducking back down. They needed a distraction. Something that would allow some of them to slip around the Jaffa's position and flank them. There weren't a lot of Jaffa, and they were cut off from their destination as much as SG-1 was. SG-1's advantage was that they held the assets, Ba'al and the only entrance to the building upon which the cargo ship was landed. Although the Jaffa did have a crate of naquadria, which they were doing an admirable job of keeping out of the line of fire.

"Okay, I've got it." All eyes turned to Mitchell. "Jackson doesn't have to die, but he does have to scream like a girl and run for the next piece of cover in that direction." Cam pointed in the opposite direction he was planning to take his flanking group.

"Why do I have to scream like a girl?" asked Jackson with a glare.

"To be fair Daniel, you have a very convincing girlish scream." dead-panned Vala while Teal'c nodded his agreement.

"Indeed." he intoned and raked the Jaffa position opposite with automatic fire. Daniel's lips tightened into a thin line.

"It's an important part of the plan, Jackson." insisted Cam, cutting off further discussion. "When you and _you_," he indicated one of the Kelownans, "do that we'll flank them from the other direction."

"Do I have to scream girlishly too?" asked the Kelownan apprehensively.

"Can you do it well?" asked Cam seriously. The man shook his head. "Then you're okay."

"Who will comprise your flanking group, Colonel Mitchell?" asked Teal'c while staff blasts were raining against his position behind cover, he seemed unfazed by it.

"I know what you're gonna say, T-man, but I need you here. The Jaffa will notice if you're not firing back at them looking all menacing. They won't miss a few pasty white guys." He indicated himself, Jonas and two other Kelownans, Teal'c raised an eyebrow but bowed at the wisdom of the plan. "Vala, you help Teal'c and the rest of the resistance hold this position." Vala nodded. "You cool with this, Jonas?" He turned to the former member of SG-1 who grinned and nodded. Cam nodded and turned to Kianna. "Kianna, if Ba'al so much as curls his lip arrogantly, zat him." She looked at him askance. "No, wait, you're right, I'll leave it to your discretion." She smiled and nodded. "Everyone ready?" They all nodded. Cam signalled Teal'c who opened fire on the Jaffa along with Vala. "Go Jackson! And make with the girlish screams." Daniel and his Kelownan sidekick ran to the left, and he did let out a cry, though he tried to make it manly. "Jonas, with me!" Cam and his group set off in the opposite direction, blessed with more substantial cover to keep their movements out of sight of the Jaffa, distracted as they were, by Daniel changing locations.

"I can't believe he actually did it." Grinned Vala as she looked at Teal'c. "It was obviously a joke!"

"Indeed." replied Teal'c with an amused smirk.

"Ah, I do find Colonel Mitchell highly amusing. It is a pity he has so little time left." Ba'al pronounced cryptically. Kianna waved the zat menacingly and he stilled momentarily.

Cam and Jonas and the two other Kelownans stopped at a corner as Cam raised a closed fist and peeked around the wall. He counted about eight Jaffa by the improvised barricades. He knew there would be four more guarding the naquadria, he also had a rough idea where they would be. He turned back to Jonas and the four huddled down against the wall. Cam unslung his grenades and handed them to Quinn who distributed them to the man and woman he was leading.

"Okay, there are eight Jaffa by the wall around the corner. If I were them I'd have secured the crate of naquadria in that building over there," he nodded his head towards his guess as he spoke softly, "four men guarding, but with orders not to blow it." Jonas looked over at the indicated building and nodded. "I need you three to wait before taking on these Jaffa. I will approach the building and if I find the naquadria I will send you the signal." The three Kelownans checked over their weapons once more and readied their own explosives.

"And your signal will be..." Jonas raised his eyebrows, likely already knowing the answer. Cam turned his patrol cap around on his head to face backwards and checked the number of rounds left in the magazine on the top of his P90.

"Lots of gunfire." Cam said without a hint of a smile. Jonas himself simply grinned. Both men nodded and Cam broke away down an alley headed for the building. Approaching the back door he crouched under a window and took out a mirror from his vest and held it up to get a surreptitious look inside. He saw four Jaffa crouched defensively around a small crate, which was thankfully mostly concealed by a low interior wall that looked to be part of some shop counter. They vigilantly scanned the access routes into the building. Cam tilted the mirror from side to side to get a better look at their location. His eyes locked onto a large crack in the brick wall close to the Jaffa position. Perfect. He scrambled in a crouch around the side of the building, finding the crack, which indeed ran all they way through the wall. He slipped a block of C4 from his vest and a small detonator charge, which he pressed into the block, and attached them to the wall with tape. Looking around for a place close by where he could take cover, he spotted the broken wall of the next building and scrambled to it and over to the other side.

Taking out the detonator and arming the fuse he ducked down and covered his head with his arms before flipping the switch to set off a concussive blast which sent a huge shower of debris over his position. Raising up his P90 he waited a breath, and sure enough, a Jaffa appeared in the new hole he'd blown into the opposite building. He opened fire. In the distance he heard the tell tale sounds of fragmentation grenades and the loud report of Kelwonan rifles as well as the familiar bursts of P90 fire. Having killed the Jaffa he leapt over the wall and ran forward, shooting the Jaffa who appeared next in his line of sight through the gap. Without stopping he kicked the armoured warrior in the chest before he could fall forward and block off his entrance. Stepping over the body already slumped in the gap he swung his P90 around, looking for the other two Jaffa who were inside, finding one of them already dead, bloody and burned from the explosion.

A small scuffing sound and cry from his right had him swing his weapon over only to have it knocked aside by the butt of a staff weapon striking his hand over the trigger as he opened fire. Letting the weapon drop back down to his chest as his nerveless fingers would no longer be able to work the trigger, he used the momentum of the staff attack to pivot on his back foot and land a roundhouse kick against the back of the Jaffa's head, sending him scrambling unsteadily to the far wall and away from the crate of naquadria. Cam hoped desperately that Ba'al made his orders to not fire anywhere near the highly volatile material explicit and unequivocal. He shook out the fingers of his right hand trying to get feeling back into them and picked up the staff weapon dropped by the Jaffa killed in the explosion. It was long but he could use it.

"I should warn you. I know me some of them Sodan moves." he told the Jaffa as he spun the staff theatrically for effect and took a stance, signalling the Jaffa to come at him. He was still favouring his right hand but he didn't need as much control over it while using the staff. The Jaffa spun his own staff and charged him, raising it in an arc over his head and flying backwards to land in a smoking heap as the staff blast Cam fired hit him in the chest. "Gotta watch the classics, buddy."

He threw the staff weapon aside and checked over the crate, breathing a sigh of relief when he noticed only superficial damage from flying debris. He cocked a head up and heard only silence, the fighting was done. Reaching a hand to his shoulder he toggled his radio.

"Teal'c, what's your status?" he asked, releasing the button.

"All enemies eliminated, Colonel Mitchell. Ba'al is secure." Cam smiled and toggled his radio again.

"Any casualties?" He waited a breath before hearing his radio squawk again.

"None except Daniel Jackson's pride, Jonas Quinn also reports no casualties from his location across the square." Good news. He lifted his patrol cap and scrubbed at his hair a moment before engaging his radio once more.

"Naquadria secure. I'll need help carrying it." He let the button go and sat down on the crate to catch a much needed breath.

"Understood, Colonel Mitchell, I believe Jonas Quinn is approaching your location to render assistance." came the disconnected voice of his friend just as the Resistance leader poked a head through the door.

"What do ya know? Plan B worked!" Cam crowed and Jonas grinned at him. The man grinned a lot.

An hour later, Cam's hand was throbbing painfully while they stood in front of an active Stargate with a captive Ba'al looking decidedly unhappy. Jonas' men had taken custody of the naquadria and returned it to the bunker it had been housed in previously while they waited for the arrival of government troops. The cargo ship was also secure and would now be added to the Kelownan's inventory. One of a precious few.

"You need to stop by and say 'hi' sometime, Jonas. Sam's back in two weeks, did I mention that?" Cam smiled and shook the former SG-1 member's hand, trying not to wince, then took Kianna's and shook it, happily, as she didn't squeeze his. Jonas grinned and scratched at his shaggy hair.

"Yeah, you have. I'll do that, it's been a while since I've seen her." He glanced at Kianna as he spoke and Cam snapped his fingers a few times.

"Four and a half years ago, you took a prototype rotovator to drill close enough to a vein of naquadah and sever it with an explosion before its conversion into naquadria caused the core of Langara to explode. Kianna was your assistant, and the Goa'uld spy within her," he smiled apologetically at her, she nodded sadly in acceptance, "in service of Ba'al," he glanced at the Goa'uld who bristled, "sacrificed itself to ensure the success of the mission." Jonas looked slightly amazed.

"Don't worry about that, Jonas, he does it all the time. He read all our files." Daniel said from where he held onto one of Ba'al's elbows. "You get used to it." Jonas grinned and nodded.

"Farewell, Jonas Quinn, I look forward to seeing you again. Though perhaps next time, under less dire circumstances." Teal'c eyed Ba'al distastefully and held a little tighter to the former System Lord's other elbow which had the Goa'uld twisting slightly in pain.

"I'd like that, Teal'c. We'll try to come over soon." Jonas once more looked at the woman with the short blond hair standing next to him and smiled. "Now that the Ori are gone."

"Yeah, sorry about that, our bad." muttered Daniel softly, glancing at Vala.

"Now if I didn't know you were an alien, Jonas, I'd swear you were another example of the limited gene pool of Earth males, however intriguing it might be." Vala looked at Cam and Daniel as she spoke and they both glared at her.

"Punch in the IDC, Vala." Cam kept glaring at her. She grinned back at him unabashedly. "Now let's take our Ba'al and go home."

"Oh God, I'll be so glad when Sam gets back," Daniel whined as he turned Ba'al around to face the Stargate, "she won't stand for these bad puns."

"Indeed." Teal'c glared at Mitchell before raising an eyebrow at Jonas' wide eyed grin.

"Why do you think I'm getting them all out now? Did I mention? Two weeks!" Cam smiled and gave a small salute to Jonas and Kianna before they all stepped through the event horizon. When they arrived at the SGC into the maw of several squads of armed Marines and SFs, they could see General Landry smiling broadly from the control room, standing next to him was a rather severe looking Tok'ra. Cam tried to stifle a grin behind his hand as he walked down the ramp. They must be so pissed that Ba'al was captured by the Tau'ri.

* * *

Tok'ra homeworld, July 31st, 2008 (alternate timeline)

They'd just watched O'Neill die. Stabbed with the needle from the extraction device by Ba'al, or Ba'al's clone as he claimed to be. They'd seen Teal'c disappear before their eyes, and Vala also had vanished while no one was looking. Now entire buildings were vanishing all around them and the ground felt like it was rumbling unsteadily under his feet. There was a flash of agony, a bright light sending starbursts into his brain, he felt hazy, insubstantial, his knees buckled and he stumbled, nearly pitching headlong into the ground. His mind felt on fire, images flashed through them, childhood memories of a BBQ, days at the Academy, the first bomb he'd dropped against an enemy target, intense Antarctic cold, his first trip through the 'gate, kissing Sam for the first time in a 302, talking to an Asgard aboard Odyssey while flexing his shock-numbed fingers. Wait. Kissing Sam?

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Sam's steadying hand grasped under his arm and helped him to his feet. He felt solid again, the pain and dizziness was gone. He glanced up into her concerned blue eyes. They had to get off this planet. Waving her on he began running again, taking the dog-tags clinking against his tac vest and tucking them back under his sand coloured t-shirt, dog-tags which read 'Mitchell, Cameron J.'

* * *

Stargate Command, July 2010

Cameron gave Sam an encouraging look and gave her arm a squeeze before going to his seat around the table next to General O'Neill after General Landry had told them to sit. He leaned back and looked at each of his SG-1 teammates as they focused their attention on Sam by the multimedia setup at the head of the room. A map of the Milky Way galaxy was displayed on the large television screen and two blue dots appeared.

"Last month we conducted two successful tests of the nine symbol dialling program from Hypraxia Base, the site Ba'al used in his failed attempt at galactic domination." She indicated the blue dot which began pulsing. "Our simulated attempts to connect to Destiny gave no indication they would be successful. The base can certainly produce the necessary power, we just can't channel that power into the Stargate carefully enough. In an attempt to diagnose where we would need to make any upgrades we made an attempt at a connection we believed would not only succeed, but prove our theories on the nature of the Ninth Chevron equations discovered by Dr. Rush and completed by Eli Wallace." The second dot which was just beyond the edge of the galactic disk began to pulse. "We dialled the nine symbol address of Atlantis which we found in the Asgard database on Odyssey. At the time, Atlantis was just leaving the Milky Way on its way back to Pegasus, and was in hyperspace." She grinned like a school girl at that, but her smile fell at seeing the Generals were not quite sharing the wonder of that. "You see, sirs, we've always believed it was im-"

"Carter!" O'Neill interrupted her and she glanced at him. "I know I'm going to end this briefing with a headache. I'd just rather the damn thing only start about halfway through." She sighed softly.

"Yes, sir. This test not only validated our theories but also confirmed that power generation capacity were more than sufficient to dial Destiny as long as we solved our infrastructure issue." Atlantis' blue dot disappeared. "The address for our second attempt was chosen for a multitude of reasons. One was the likelihood of its being a ship with a connection to Earth in the distant past, like Atlantis, another reason was the possibility it was more than a few galaxies away if Destiny's current position was any indication, the other was curiosity as to the nature of the address itself as it shared the first eight symbols with two other addresses we retrieved from the Asgard database. We wanted to know if the similarity in the addresses would translate into a similarity in the destinations. What we actually found was beyond any of our wildest guesses." A dot appeared, flashing ominously in red. "Not only wasn't the destination several galaxies away but it was right here in _our_ Solar System," The view changed to indicate a three dimensional model of the Earth-Moon system, "on _our_ Moon." A red spot began pulsing on the far side of the Moon from Earth. All of this had been covered in the debriefing they'd had a fortnight ago but it was proper to go over it again when laying out a new mission which depended on the information. "Tests and scans which we have conducted since then with Apollo's help, indicate a massive area under the surface of the Moon which our Asgard sensors cannot penetrate, we can only map the exterior edges. We cannot get any indication of the interior at all due to heavy distortion of the readings. There's something there we just don't know what it is."

"A ship is buried on the Moon." iterated O'Neill as he leaned forward over the desk and clasped his hands.

"That is one theory, but it would be a very large ship, larger than Atlantis itself." Sam confirmed. "So far we only know of nine symbol addresses being assigned to ships, or a mobile structure such as Atlantis. The nature of the equations necessary to make use of the Ninth Chevron don't make any sense if the target isn't in some way mobile."

"How far down is it?" asked Landry and Sam turned to the television and keyed in a change to display a cross-sectional cutaway into the Moon, showing the surface and below it a garbled mass of disrupted sensor readings indicating whatever was there, it was very large and shaped like a large disk at the top of it.

"Just a couple of hundred meters or so." indicated Sam. "Tests we conducted with the MALP and Apollo's Asgard beams indicate that they can get a lock on signals as weak as our transponders and safely beam them up. They can't beam us down however, not without the risk of putting us halfway in a bulkhead." Jack winced and shook his head. "The distortion itself is of such a nature that we can only really see the top edge of the object. Trying to map the whole exterior of it hasn't yet been possible."

"And we're sure this thing is Ancient?" he asked. Sam nodded vigorously.

"Yes, sir. In fact it looks like the technology in use there resembles Atlantis a great deal. Certainly far more than it resembles Destiny, which meant we couldn't use the remote interface we'd designed. We are assuming that whatever is there is contemporaneous or newer than Atlantis." Sam smiled when O'Neill's eyes glazed over.

"That one hasn't been on my new word-a-day calendar yet." He smiled weakly.

"It means 'of the same time', Jack." Daniel supplied and Jack nodded.

"See, you could have said that, Carter." He looked reprovingly at Sam. She smiled.

"I'm a scientist, sir, there are very strict rules..." Cam smiled, she was teasing him. Jack waved her away dismissively.

"It can't have been built by the Lanteans after they come back?" asked Landry and Sam had to look to Daniel to answer that.

"It's a possibility, though unlikely. When the Lanteans returned to Earth they did so to focus on ascension or to merely live out a solitary existence. They were not interested in creating any kind of foothold or society in this galaxy." He looked between the generals before concluding. "If they didn't build it, it's also unlikely they would have attempted to access it had they known of its existence at all, for the same reasons." Landry turned back to look at Sam. She carried on with her briefing.

"Telemetry received from the MALP while it was there, indicates minuscule power readings, no lighting, temperatures skewing cold but nominal, the atmosphere is not toxic but it isn't breathable. It's far too thin on oxygen at only two percent or so. Pressure is nominal which indicates there are no structural integrity issues. In and of itself that is quite remarkable considering we can only assume that whatever this is, it could be a few million years old."

"Thank you, Colonel Carter." Landry smiled at her and she nodded, taking her seat beside Cam. "So what do we think this is?" SG-1's eyes turned to Daniel which caused the Generals to turn toward him too.

"There are a few possibilities." He motioned towards Jack opposite him. "A ship, buried under the regolith, perhaps covered over after landing on the surface as it was millions of years ago. This isn't considered likely." At Jack's quizzical tilt of the head Daniel pushed his glasses up his nose and explained. "A ship on the surface would still be distorting the surface features even if covered over, just like burial mounds, settlement walls and boundary ditches do here on Earth."

"Also the chances of a ship on the surface having escaped impact from a meteorite for several million years is... literally astronomical." Sam supplied and Daniel thanked her with a nod.

"Another possibility is a city-ship like Atlantis, but..." he trailed off and Landry picked up.

"That suffers from the same problems as a regular ship, but even more so." He raised his eyebrows and nodded when Daniel confirmed that.

"The most likely scenario is some sort of underground base. The purpose of which is... unknowable without more information." Daniel concluded.

"Unknowable unless we go there." O'Neill supplied to Daniel's nod. "So what's the plan?" It was Cam's turn.

"We dial in from the SGC, wearing breathing equipment. We take with us a portable naquadah generator and try to find somewhere to hook it up. If we get into trouble Odyssey will be able to beam us out." He was leaning back in his chair as he gazed at each member of his team in turn. They'd discussed this in detail beforehand and all agreed this was the best plan. "The breathers will have a four hour supply, which isn't much but if we set up a transport beacon marked zone we can beam in and out the way we did with Atlantis when it was cloaked, if it takes multiple trips we can take multiple trips. If we're lucky the place will come on by itself when we 'gate in the way Atlantis did. Otherwise we'd need to locate a main junction to try to get power to primary systems."

"Once we have power, I should be able to get life support systems back on line, with Cam and Daniel's help with translations." Sam added.

"If this place doesn't respond to Mitchell the way Atlantis did to Sheppard." Landry interrupted.

"Yes, sir." Sam glanced at Cameron as she answered. "The rest of the systems can follow after that. We should be able to use the Stargate itself at that point if all goes well." They all quieted and looked around at each other before turning to Landry and O'Neill. Jack gave a slight nod to Landry and both men stood together. Cam and Sam bolted to their feet and the others followed suit at their own pace, expectantly.

"You have a go, SG-1." Landry ordered.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am only playing in the world.

**The Ninth Chevron – Chapter 8**

Stargate Command, August 2006

Sam stood just inside the control room waiting for Cam and General Landry to arrive for their UAV sweep of the planet Vala recognised from the list Ba'al gave them. She was learning to like Vala, she really was, it made such a difference having a woman on the team and ever since Janet died... She bowed her head again remembering her lost friend. Seeing the alternate reality version of her that had come to the SGC after the wormhole funnel incident had been equal parts pain and joy. She missed her friend. She didn't often allow herself to wallow in such emotions. Vala was becoming a friend, but from a tactical stand point the woman still had a lot to learn about working in a team. She was still the loner, out for herself. Sam sighed, maybe with Cam's help she could get through to Vala. She heard movement out in the corridor and the voices of Landry and Cameron as they approached. It seemed they were discussing Vala too from what she could get of the conversation.

"-to me, he's the only one she ever listens to." Landry must have been talking about Daniel. He was the only one who Vala ever paid any attention to.

"Yeah…some of the time." Cam confirmed her impressions.

"You don't think you can control her?" Landry's question was dangerous. They needed to go on this mission if they were to make any headway with Ba'al's story. Be careful how you respond Cam.

"Oh, I know I can't control her." he said bluntly and Sam held a hand to her forehead. What was he thinking? "But that's pretty much par for the course. Sir…Carter and I are the same rank. Teal'c's an alien. Jackson's a civilian. I learned a long time ago, I don't 'control' anything." She blinked when she heard his words. Is this how he'd been feeling all this time?

"Who does?" Landry quipped. She should have realised Cam _would_ be able to get away with admitting something like that to his commanding officer. She sighed and the two men entered the control room from the 'gate room access corridor. She smiled nervously as they came in and Cam smiled back, they both walked past her to stand behind Walter but she was frozen.

Once they were busy she held a hand to her mouth as her mind raced. As far as she was concerned Cam had accomplished the impossible. He'd taken an SG-1 which had literally scattered to the four winds and one by one brought them back together through a combination of determination, perseverance, and a healthy dose of guile, with conniving, trickery and cajoling thrown in the mix for good measure. She never thought anyone could have brought her back to the SGC, it wasn't long after she did come back that she realised he was the only one that could have done it.

Had she left him in the lurch when it came to the actual team, though? She realised now that he never gave her any direct orders unless they were under fire, and he often deferred to her judgement on more than just scientific matters. She gasped slightly and her eyes went wide when she realised something else. When he did lay out a plan for the team he always did one other thing she'd always found odd. He'd look away for a moment. He tried to make it look as if he was scanning the horizon or checking his weapon, but she realised that moment was always when Daniel or Teal'c or both would look her way. She had both hands covering her mouth now. He knew! He'd known they would! Had he felt undermined this whole time? She'd never spoken to him about any of this. She'd led the team for a year before he joined, but she had put that behind her. She was happy not being the team's 'leader' anymore, she was happy to follow him even if he was a newbie at the SGC, she always had been when they flew in the same squadron before she went to work at the Pentagon on the reopened Stargate project, she knew what kind of man he was, what kind of leader he was, but Daniel and Teal'c didn't. Had they been looking to her as the de facto head of SG-1 when he was meant to be the de jure leader? She shook her head slowly. And he'd still managed to keep them together for over a year in spite of all that. She screwed her eyes shut for several moments before moving to stand beside Cam. He glanced her way and gave her a smile. She had to support him better than she had been up until now. She realised it would start with Vala.

* * *

Stargate Command, June 2008

Sam stepped through the Stargate to find SG-1 at the bottom of the ramp, standing aside as several airmen pushed the cases holding her things out through the doors towards her lab, she smoothed the Atlantis jumpsuit she was wearing and smiled at all of them, it faltered slightly as she noticed that someone was missing. She had little time to take in more however, before Vala wrapped her arms around Sam's neck and hugged her violently.

"I missed you so much, Samantha! You have no idea how much testosterone I've had to wade through in the last year!" whined the former thief against her shoulder. Sam smiled and hugged the woman whose friendship she hadn't realised how much she would actually miss until she'd left.

"I think I do, Vala, remember I was on a team with General O'Neill, Teal'c and Daniel for seven years, by myself." She pulled back slightly and nearly laughed out loud at Vala's mock-horrified look.

"You poor thing!" She pulled Sam's head down to her shoulder. "Oh, come here and let me hold you to my womanly bosom!" Sam did laugh that time.

"That's enough, Vala!" Daniel interrupted pulling the raven haired woman away. "Let the rest of us get our turn." He smiled at Sam and pulled her into a tight hug of his own. She grinned. "Welcome back home, Sam." He pulled back to allow Teal'c in for his own embrace.

"Indeed, Colonel Carter, it is very good to see you once again." His deep voice rumbled in his chest as he held her by her shoulders.

"Thank you, guys. It's good to see all of you again," she looked around the 'gate room, "but where's Cam?" They all turned to look towards where Landry's office would be.

"He would've been here, but he's in Landry's office trying to point out to the IOA rep that he can't reassign you to Area 51 without your consent." Daniel replied.

"What?" she cried, walking quickly down the ramp and around to the control room. She spared Walter a smile and a greeting and a touch on the shoulder before taking the steps to the briefing room two at a time. That's when she heard his voice, a voice she hadn't heard in person for many months. Just through the odd communique with the SGC. She wasn't quite prepared for the effect it had on her and she stopped at the top of the stairs, colour rising to her cheeks. That's when she heard what he was saying.

"You can't be serious! She hasn't even returned yet and she definitely hasn't decided she wants to go to Area 51. You can't pack her off to Nevada on a whim!" He sounded furious, leaning over James Coolidge as the other man sat by Landry's desk. The General himself was looking on without comment although his expression when he regarded the IOA rep was definitely unfriendly. He spotted her through the glass divider between his office and the briefing room and shook his head at her imperceptibly. She nodded and the rest of the team behind her also stood where they were.

"It is hardly a whim, Colonel Mitchell. Colonel Carter is considered to be the foremost scientific asset available to the Air Force. Her talents are infinitely better suited to take charge of R&D at Area 51. A position she actually accepted not three years ago I might add." His condescending tone made her cringe. Almost as much as remembering that she had in fact accepted that position three years ago. It wasn't something she wanted now though.

"That was three years ago, and it was still her choice then, and it's beside the point anyway!" dismissed Cameron. "Carter's tactical expertise is just as valuable as her scientific abilities. In fact it's that combination which makes her a nigh-on perfect SG team member." She felt the colour in her cheeks again. "SG-1 is where she belongs, also where she told me not last week she expected to be assigned!" She remembered that, the smile on his face when she'd said that had her grinning all day long. "And anyway, where does the IOA get the authority to decide where Air Force personnel are assigned? Especially people like Carter who've earned the right to choose their posting in the past?" He crossed his arms across his chest as he stared down at Coolidge's distressed features. "General? Since when does the IOA get to countermand an Air Force officer's choice and the decisions of her chain-of-command?"

"They don't, Mitchell, which is what I tried telling Mr. Coolidge an hour ago, before he had you called in to 'inform you of the IOA's decision' regarding Carter's posting." Landry allowed his contempt to show clearly and Sam's own features twisted in disgust. Not only had 'exhaustive review of her command' turned into outright removal before she'd even stepped through the Stargate to Earth, now they were trying to decide where she would go and what she would do in her Air Force career? She couldn't take any more of this and she strode forward into Landry's office.

"And even if they'd offered me the post I would have turned them down." she declared acerbically, facing the IOA rep. "I made my posting request weeks ago when the IOA informed me I was no longer required on Atlantis. I chose SG-1. General Landry accepted my request." Cam had spun around at hearing her voice and the look on his face had her grinning. "Hey Cam." He walked over to her and wrapped her up in his arms. She was definitely home now.

"I'm so sorry, Sam, I wanted to be there when you came through the 'gate!" he apologised without letting her go, not even the sour look on Coolidge's face could take away from the warmth she felt standing there. "Welcome home, you sight for sore eyes."

"That's okay, Cam, I heard what you were doing from the guys. Thanks for that." She smiled at him as she pulled back slightly, enjoying the feel of him running the back of his right hand against her cheek. It was bandaged for some reason. She looked at it then at him with a concerned gaze, he shrugged and smiled sheepishly to which she rolled her eyes.

"I hate to interrupt this touching reunion-" began Coolidge.

"_Then don't!_" cried all of SG-1 in unison except for Teal'c who glared balefully at him, much to the IOA rep's alarm. He managed to regain his composure slightly after gulping.

"The IOA feels that Colonel Carter can best serve the program at Area 51, if necessary we'll contact the President-" Again Coolidge was interrupted, this time by Landry.

"Who will just call me and ask me why a pencil-pushing bureaucrat is trying to reassign my personnel away from me!" he thundered, causing the IOA man to jump in his seat. "The IOA cannot request reassignment of Air Force personnel without going through their chain-of-command. They certainly can't demand it! This is inviolable, Mr. Coolidge."

"And I'd retire or resign first if they ever came close to succeeding!" Sam squared her shoulders facing the seated bureaucrat who was looking very nervous now. His eyes flitted between her, the other members of her team and General Landry before he coughed into his hand and stood up, awkwardly straightening his tie.

"I'll convey these circumstances to the IOA board. If you'll excuse me." He tried to thread his way through the crowd in the office towards the door leading to the rest of sub-level 27. No one moved for him and he was forced to give up and go out the briefing room door.

"Sorry about that, Colonel. This is not how you should have returned from Atlantis. Great job by the way. _The President_ and the _Air Force Chief of Staff _asked me to convey to you their regards on a job well done." Landry's emphasis was telling.

"Thank you, sir." She smiled at him.

"Welcome home, Colonel." he said gruffly, with a smile.

* * *

The White House, August 2009 (alternate timeline)

Two weeks! They'd been two weeks away from testing their communicator. This was so infuriating! And worst of all it meant their chances of success were drastically reduced because now the only hope they had was the _Navy's_ Stargate Program. He felt like throwing up. Even that chance was damn slim since they were essentially _out of time_. The only thing in their favour, their single advantage, was that Ba'al didn't know SG-1 was here. If he ever saw the bastard he was going to shoot him in the head!

Most of this passed through his mind as he flew through the sky over Washington D.C. in a forest green and white Sikorsky VH-60 Whitehawk flown by the Marine Corps HMX-1 helicopter squadron. Basically it would be called Marine One if it weren't currently busing his ass from Andrews AFB to the White House. The Marines aboard were everything expected of the detachment charged with the safety and transportation of the President, the Vice-President or their families, or any combination of dignitaries foreign or domestic. Professional, highly trained and unfailingly polite. Though he imagined they were wondering why they'd been ordered to bring a scruffy-looking civvie in blue jeans, white shirt and a green jacket to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Cam himself would have felt honoured if the situation wasn't the greatest SNAFU in the history of SNAFUs.

The special variant chopper landed lightly on the White House lawn and he hopped down amidst an escort of Marines in full dress uniform, he turned and gave a salute to the crew, who may have been vaguely insulted at the civvie saluting them, and followed the escort inside. As soon as he walked into the building a dark suited staffer attached himself to Cam like a limpet, Cam promptly ignored him, making non-committal noises to anything the man said as his eyes scanned the rooms and corridors he passed through, looking for two faces. He was ushered into a room with large florid murals and Sam immediately stood up from the sofa and rushed over to him, he wrapped her in his arms and crushed her to him, pressing his face into her neck. She looked so good in those jeans.

"You okay, Sam?" he breathed as the staffer walked around him and politely gave the two some space. He pushed Sam back a step and looked into her face, seeing only relief at being with him and also fury and frustration at the reason for it. She nodded, her blue eyes fiery. "Yeah, me too." He could see the question in her eyes, wondering why he was so late. "Can you believe Ba'al happened to pick the day I chose to visit the old family homestead to make his appearance?" At her instant frown he chuckled. "Don't worry, I cleared it, it's not as if anyone knows me there, I just... I needed to see it you know?" Her eyes softened and she hugged him again.

"We were getting worried, Mitchell." came Daniel's voice from the couch and Sam pulled away from him to allow him to go and shake his friend's hand. "Long time no see, flyboy."

"Likewise, linguist." Cam grinned and clapped him on the shoulder. Just then another door into the room opened and a stocky man in his late fifties entered the room, dressed in a very finely tailored suit and impeccably shined shoes, he strode over to 'SG-1, as was' with a small coterie of hangers-on behind him. Cam half-turned to look at the man and Sam came to stand beside him, a grim look on her face and her arms crossed over the white shirt under her leather jacket. Daniel looked on impassively from his seat.

"Mr. Mitchell, Ms. Carter, Mr. Jackson my name-" the man began introducing himself, but Cam cut him off.

"Wait up. I'm sorry, but my friends here," he indicated Sam and Daniel, "have more doctorates between them than some universities, and it really _hacks me off_ the way their accomplishments aren't recognised by you folks." Sam glanced at him, slightly alarmed at his tone but he could see the appreciation in her eyes, Daniel looked annoyed at the whole situation. "I don't care that Sam and I lost our ranks in this whole messed up fiasco, that we were cashiered out of the service we dedicated our entire adult lives to, that the three of us were banned from not only the best job in the world but any other which had anything to do with our qualifications, or that despite being best friends we were forcibly separated from each other..." He paused theatrically. "No, wait, I do care about those things!" He glared at the man whose expression barely concealed his dismay at this outburst. "If you're gonna ask us for our help, and I _know _you are, then let's start with a little respect!" The man bristled, anger playing across his shoulders as the faces on everyone who had walked in with him turned white as a sheet. The man forced himself calm however, and when he started again his voice was studied politeness, though his eyes were fierce.

"You're right, I'm sorry, Mr. Mitchell, _Dr._ Carter, _Dr._ Jackson," Cam noted impassively that the man still didn't use his rank, "my name is Horace Mayhew, I'm the White House Chief of Staff. I'm here to give you a very short briefing about what to expect when you meet the President. He can be-" If he was surprised to be cut off again he admirably didn't show it.

"We've met him before, a few times. We understand he's not the same man, but this isn't our first dance, Mr. Mayhew. Where's the President?" Daniel stood up slowly.

"Dr. Jackson, I have to be certain-" He must have been beginning to wonder if he'd ever get to finish a sentence.

"Do we really have time for this, Mr. Mayhew?" Sam's voice was cold. "I do believe there is a Goa'uld invasion fleet of epic proportions in high Earth orbit, one _we_ told you was on its way a _year_ ago! Every second you spend telling us how to speak politely to your President is a second we aren't spending making them go away." Cam did not miss the modifier she used on the President's title. Mayhew didn't miss it either.

"Dr. Carter, it was unforeseeable-" Was the man actually trying to rationalise this? Cam snapped.

"No it wasn't! We _told_ you this was going to happen! We _told_ you it was only a matter of time! But you decided to stick your heads in the sand! 'They didn't come in '39 so they probably won't be coming ever.' Are you serious? Ba'al knows us, he knows what the Tau'ri are capable of!" Cam squared his shoulders as he saw the man standing before him quivering with rage, but Cam kept on going. "We told you the only way this was going to play out! But you chose a reality where Ba'al was in control of the System Lords over one where they had already been defeated, along with the Replicators and the Ori! Because wanting to fix a timeline _created by our enemy_ is arrogant! You know," he turned to Sam with a manic look and nearly laughed out loud before turning deadly serious again and turning back to Mayhew, "I can't stress that point enough. _Created. By. Our enemy!_ We begged you to let us help you a year ago, Mr. Mayhew, we _begged_ you. We offered you not only our expertise but the names of the men and women who most contributed to our successes!"

"A lot of them were Air Force, Cam." Sam's voice dripped with sarcasm and Cam snapped his fingers at her as if he'd forgotten that point.

"You're right! Not _Navy_!" He turned back to Mayhew. "Did you even contact any of the scientists we told you about?"

"Dr. McKay?" listed Sam.

"He mispronounces his 'Z's." put in Daniel.

"Dr. Zelenka?" she offered.

"The man's a Czech, Sam." Cam replied with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Dr. Lee?" she asked. Cam and Daniel looked at each other.

"World of Warcraft." they replied in unison. Cam moved to stand in front of Mayhew again.

"How about any of the people we mentioned that had the Ancient gene like Sheppard or Dr. Beckett? Did you even bring in proven leaders like Dr. Weir?" Cam watched the man's eyes for a moment before snorting in disgust. "Of course you didn't because they were names _we_ gave you." Cam shook his head and glared at the man. "Where's the President?"

"Mr. Mitchell, I don't think you understand the gravity of your situation. Or who you're dealing-" The man flinched at the tone Daniel used when he spoke, it was quiet, sharp, agonised.

"Mr. Mayhew, we've looked into the faces of creatures who could read our thoughts, and kill millions with a touch, who commanded armies so vast they blotted out the stars in the sky, enslaved or devastated thousands of worlds, some, entire galaxies. We looked into the faces of these beings, Mr. Mayhew, and we ended them." He turned towards the door and Cam followed him. Sam was still looking the man's way as his pale, ashen face turned to follow her friends.

"Sorry, Mr. Mayhew, we just aren't impressed by the vast powers of the White House Chief of Staff. Especially when his boss is about to ask us to save his ass. Not to worry though," she looked over her shoulder at Cam and Daniel, "now that we've taken our frustrations-"

"Most." interjected Daniel, his lips pressed into a thin, brooding line as he narrowed his eyes at Mayhew. Sam glanced at him a moment before continuing.

"-most of our frustrations out on you," she watched Mayhew's eyes narrow slightly as his mind worked things out, "we'll be sure to be polite-"

"Mostly." Daniel interrupted again this time with his arms crossed against his chest. Sam glanced at him and tilted her head to the side once, he shrugged his shoulders.

"-mostly polite with your President." She had turned back to the Chief of Staff who looked at each of them in turn, he sighed deeply, running a hand through his grey hair. "Where's the President?" she asked. Mayhew watched them critically for a moment before turning to the staffer who had accompanied Cam into the room and gave him a nod.

"Alex, take them to the bunker." The young man bounded towards the door when he was called and ushered SG-1 to follow him, Cam paused at the threshold and looked at Mayhew for a moment.

"This place isn't safe. Ba'al knows where the White House is. And, you know, orbital weapons." He walked away.

* * *

Stargate Command, July 2010

"Won't you sit with me, Carter?" Landry's offer surprised Sam to say the least, the General didn't often come to the mess to eat, most of the time he had food brought to his office. When he did it was usually with his daughter Carolyn. She hadn't expected him to call to her when she nodded politely to him as she passed his table on her way to sit with the rest of SG-1. She quickly glanced over towards them and she saw Daniel and Cameron watching her. Cam raised an eyebrow then nodded with a shrug. He was right, Landry wanted to talk to her and he didn't want it to be formal by doing it in his office.

"Of course, sir. I'd be happy to." She smiled at him and sat down opposite him, he chuckled gruffly.

"We both know where you'd rather be sitting, Colonel." He glanced over her shoulder at the table where SG-1 was sitting and she was absolutely positive he was looking at Cam specifically. Her alarm bells were ringing and the siren in her head was wailing. She'd been holding this forkful of salad motionless for too long so she quickly took it into her mouth and chewed.

"I don't follow, sir. We're always happy to eat with you." She tried to be nonchalant as she prodded the lemon chicken on her plate, but knew she'd failed when he gave a short barking laugh.

"I may not have been aboard Odyssey when Thor explained what the Deep Core was, Carter, but I was there when Mitchell first turned it on." His voice betrayed his clear amusement and Sam's eyes widened into saucers as she froze, mouthful of chicken in mid-chew. Of course he'd be remembering that time aboard Odyssey as well. He watched over hers and Cam's growing relationship on that ship for twenty years before he passed on. She slowly finished chewing and gently lay down her fork.

"Sir?" she prodded carefully. "Are you telling me to-" She stopped as he raised a hand.

"Colonel. I know you. I know both of you. You're the most professional soldiers it has ever been my fortune to command. I _know_ just how thoughtful, determined and loyal you both can be, I have no doubt that you would each make correct decisions in the field regardless of anything else." He smiled genuinely at her. "If it were up to Jack and I this wouldn't be an issue at all. Congress and the Joint Chiefs however, are a bunch of sticklers and meddlers who must be obeyed." She looked down and nodded slowly. "I just want to say there are always options. The Program can't do without you, Carter, and I feel SG-1 needs you, no matter what we call you or what rank or salutation we use." She glanced up at him sharply. "Something for the two of you to discuss I think. Now eat your chicken." He pointed to her plate with his fork while raising both eyebrows and smiling.

"Yes, sir." she whispered while looking over her shoulder at Cam, who was watching her intently. She tilted her head slightly and his eyes went wide and his eyebrows rose. Yeah, Daniel was right, the silent communication thing they'd developed was kinda creepy, even for her.


	9. Epilogue

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am only playing in the world.

**The Ninth Chevron – Epilogue**

US Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, September 1988

Cameron Mitchell stood to the side on one of the paths along the Terrazzo, clipboard in hand, scanning the single page summary sheets on the squad of a dozen or so doolies he'd been assigned to oversee, one of two this year for Cadet Squadron 30. He'd just gotten out of a meeting with the Superintendent himself, where it was made clear to him just how important this particular squad of fourth class cadets actually was and why he, as one of the highest ranking second class cadets, was to personally keep a close eye on them. He flipped through several summaries until he arrived at the one he was looking for. To be honest, he didn't need Lt. General Hamm to tell him he needed to give this cadet extra consideration, he would have done it anyway after reading her summary. And it wasn't because she was easy on the eye, which if her picture was anything to go by, she certainly was.

She graduated as valedictorian from high school at fifteen, too young to enter the Academy so she went to MIT on the Air Force's dime, earned a bachelor's degree, summa cum laude at eighteen, then on to post-graduate studies, the woman wasn't even 20 and she had a Ph.D. in Theoretical Astrophysics. She excelled in her 'beast' training over the summer of her eighteenth year while she was still at MIT, now she was on an accelerated path through the Academy to get her Lieutenant's bars in five semesters. It was still going to be tough for her, but she had 'astronaut' written all over her. If Cam Mitchell had anything to say about it, she was going to get there. He just had to make sure she didn't fall at the first hurdle. The Air Force was looking to her to become a leader in her field in future, and if Cam Mitchell learned one thing from his Grandma it was that the world needed more women in positions of leadership. This Samantha Carter looked to be one.

He looked up and out over the Terrazzo seeing the cadets walking between the buildings on the outer edges, the Cadet Chapel always caught the eye as well, framed by the Rockies behind it. Glancing towards his intended destination he began walking to the Eagle and Fledglings statue at the south end of the Air Gardens. He could already see the fourthies milling about around the bronze sculpture. A cadet's first year at the Academy was always the toughest, it was when they were broken. Even he had to go through it despite having enough college level credits to skip a year. Everyone was a doolie until they were Recognised. The one thing he could do was make sure these guys made it through.

"Fall in, doolies!" he ordered as he approached the cadets. They scrambled to form two rows of six facing the statue and he paced back and forth in front of them. "I am Second Class Cadet/Senior Master Sergeant Cameron Mitchell, Superintendent, Cadet Squadron 30, Knights." If any of them were wondering why the Squadron Superintendent was in charge of their squad they didn't say anything. "You are _my_ squad. It is my job to make sure you know just what you can expect from your time here at the Academy, if you have any questions I will answer them." He raised his eyebrows and glanced over the cadets. Someone took the cue.

"What can we expect, Cadet/Sergeant?" The youthful African American lad looked like he'd make a good wide receiver, he scanned back in his mind over the summaries, Johnson, all-district corner back in high school, played defense, but he looked good. He made a mental note to talk to the Coach.

"A year of hell, Johnson, then college... with planes." There were sniggers amongst the group which was what he wanted. He found that determination and humour kept people going far longer than grit alone. He couldn't appear as though that's what he was doing of course so he glared at them all sternly.

"What can we expect of the one year of hell, Cadet/Sergeant?" Her voice was melodious yet strong and she asked the right question. Cam should have expected it. And Mary and Joseph did her photo not do her justice. Piercing blue eyes watched him from under a sandy blond fringe and he had to school his features not to give away that he was thinking she was quite possibly the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen.

"Physical exhaustion, psychological abuse, pain and misery, Carter." He watched for her reaction, her eyes glinted with steel and he nodded slightly, she was strong. "The Air Force doesn't need quitters!" He looked over the cadets in front of him before returning his gaze to hers. What he was about to say was meant for her. "I will make it my mission to see to it none of you quit on _my_ Air Force." He was sure the way his eyes were locked on hers as he spoke was not lost on her. She nodded imperceptibly. "For a year you will be told where you can walk, how you can speak, what you can do and why you will do it, what you can't do and why you won't. You will be left at the end of this year, tempered and honed. Only then can you be Recognised. At which point we'll stop calling you doolies. There will be cake." That also got a few chuckles, at which he glared theatrically, Carter's eyes sparkled, but she managed to force the corners of her mouth back down. "Any further questions?"

"Could you tell us a bit about yourself, Cadet/Sergeant?" a petite redhead piped up from his left. Oh, yeah. Trouble. From memory he recalled she was called O'Mara, plenty smart, plenty tough. Trouble with a capital 'T'.

"I will be happy to regale you all with tales of hayseed chewing and corn shucking under a vast Kansas sky at the commencement gathering at the mess," he pointed behind the cadets, "in Mitchell Hall, no relation," a few more sniggers, "at 1400 hours. That is two in the PM for those of you who have committed the tactical blunder, not to mention fashion faux pas, of acquiring a watch with no twenty-four hour display." Several chuckles and Carter's lips broke into a smile, a very nice smile. "Before then, I will give you a tour of the dorms at Vandenberg Hall," he pointed behind him to the building at the north end of the Gardens, "and Sijan Hall," he pointed to the right to the building on the south west corner of the Terrazzo, "which you should have already seen unless you slept in your cars last night, and the academic building," he pointed to his left at the building flanking the east side of the Gardens, "Fairchild Hall." He eyed them all mock-balefully. "Ten-hut! Right face!" They all spun on their heels to face towards Fairchild Hall. "And we're walking people, we're walking." He began to walk alongside them as they all chuckled. When they reached the corner he turned them around to walk north along the path. "First stop will be Vandenberg Hall, which is _not_ your dorm! When doolies walk along the Terrazzo they will stay on the marble walkways. Stay. Within. The lines." He could already see several of the cadets sniggering. "The lines. Are. Your friends." It was a lame joke, but it always seemed to work. "Did I say something funny?"

"No, Cadet/Sergeant." came the reply from all mouths in unison. Damn right he didn't.

"From time to time you will encounter an actual officer at this Academy, you will come to attention and salute said officer. More often than not the officer will not see you as you are all very small. If that is the case you will stay at attention and hold the salute until said officer walks by." He glanced over to the cadets walking lock-step beside him. "On behalf of the Air Force, I wish to apologise to any southpaws among you for any inconvenience caused by being forced to salute with your off hand." There were several chuckles, and finally Carter's mouth split into a grin as she chuckled herself. It was a good sound. He wanted to hear it more. He made a mental note to buy drinks later for the two actual lefties in the squad and glared at all of them. "The Air Force is an equal opportunity employer, people!"

"Yes, Cadet/Sergeant." came the acknowledgement.

* * *

USS Odyssey, above P3X-474, May 2007 + 8,121 days relative

The machine on the other side of the infirmary bed beeped endlessly, droning a morbid countdown. Cam bowed his head and raised a hand to his eyes, pressing them closed with a thumb and forefinger. A phlegm-filled cough raised his head with a start and he saw the old General's eyes, slitted open and looking at him.

"Chin up, Mitchell." he ordered with his weak, raspy voice. "You're in charge now, ya hear?" A small cough made him gulp and grimace. Cam stood and fetched a glass of water, allowing the dying man to drink his fill through a straw.

"Yes, sir." Cam finally replied in a low voice.

"You've got to keep them working, Mitchell. It's on you now." The General raised his hand and Cam took it, holding the wizened, gnarled digits gently. He was surprised when he felt the fingers tighten and the arm pull him towards Landry. "I know you, boy! You're upset she went to Jackson to tell him she'd given up."

"No, sir, that's not-" Cam was interrupted as the old man shook his hand fiercely.

"Don't lie to me, boy! I've managed to learn one thing on this mission, a thing I thought I'd never learn. I figured out your kryptonite, Mitchell! She's your kryptonite." Landry coughed after that for several moments, but waved off another offer of water. "But that's okay, you see. Because you're _her_ kryptonite." Cam looked at his commander in confusion. "Don't you get it, son? You're the only one she ever allows to see her vulnerability!"

"Sir, you don't get much more vulnerable than when you admit you've given up." Cam said remorsefully.

"Idiot boy! That's just defeat. She's not afraid to show that. She's vulnerable when she's doubting herself. When she's _thinking_ of giving up. She only shows that side of herself to you, Mitchell!" His words forced Cam to think back to the time on P9C-882 when she'd been shot by an Ori staff weapon and was dying while they were out of phase. He remembered her eyes when she was telling him she was going to die, the pleading in them. He was blinking back the tears. "She knew if she'd gone to you, you'd never let her quit. If you tell her not to give up it becomes impossible for her. She can't do it after that. That's why she went to Jackson. For you, she'll find a way to reverse time if it's the last thing she ever does!" Cam nodded his understanding. "I'll give her the order, and she'll nod and cry and promise. Give her a week. Then whisper it in her ear. She'll break the universe for you, son." Cam squeezed the old man's bony hand in his, head bowed. "Now go let her in." Nodding and standing up he lay the old General's hand on the bed and placed a hand on the man's shoulder in farewell. Landry nodded and smiled. Cam turned and walked to the doorway, finding Sam waiting outside, already crying. He held open his arms and she rushed in, melting against him, sobbing into his shoulder as tears rolled down his own cheeks. A week. The General was a taskmaster alright. He kissed her hair softly and rubbed her back in slow lazy circles.

* * *

Luna, July 2010

Cam stepped through the event horizon with Teal'c close behind. Both had curved plastic breathing masks covering their faces from the eyes down under their chins, the hoses leading up over their shoulders to small tanks hanging from their backs. The bare skin of his neck flared with goosebumps at the sudden cold, but it was bearable. They raised their P90s and scanned the darkness to either side, blue light reflecting haphazardly off surfaces in the distance. This 'gate room was very large. They moved forward, the light of their flashlights highlighting a glossy, dark wall surrounding the Stargate in an almost full circle around it with the 'gate close to the top of the circle. Behind the 'gate the glossy dark wall curved high overhead, reflecting the light from their P90s all the way. On either side of a cleared area behind the 'gate sweeping curved stairs ran up to balconies high on either side of the room, curving around the 'gate and the vast room ahead of it and almost connecting on the opposite side of the room. Instead the room opened into a larger open space with a wide ramp leading down, under a semi-circular arch. Their lights could not penetrate that darkness. At the top of that ramp, corridors led off from the circular space of the 'gate room, curving away as if to envelope the 'gate room again in a vast loop. This visual sweep took mere seconds and when it was complete Cam touched the comm button in the side of his mask over the ear, glancing over his shoulder at the other three SG-1 members who had come after them with a FRED in tow hauling their gear, dragging portable light units into place around the gate and switching them on.

"SGC, this is Mitchell. Area around the 'gate clear and secure. Zero contacts. Proceeding with the mission." He signalled to Teal'c who walked over slowly, his eyes roving over the darkness around them.

"SG-1, this is Stargate Command. Understood, Colonel. We'll be waiting to hear from you. Colonel Hendricks sends 'Odyssey stands ready to assist', Landry out." The radio sign off was punctuated by the wormhole disconnecting, leaving only small islands of light around the lamps already set up.

"Teal'c, keep an eye on this end of the room please. I doubt there's anyone in this place, but all the entrances seem to be at this end." The Jaffa nodded at him and Cam started walking back to the others. "I'll send Jackson and Vala with some lights for you in a while."

"Cameron, this place doesn't look a _little_ like Atlantis, it looks _a lot_ like Atlantis." Sam was shining her flashlight over the consoles on the balcony to the left of the 'gate as he walked back.

"I hear ya, but it's not reacting to me at all so far." Cam's gene therapy had produced the greatest expression amongst the team members. The therapy wasn't cleared as safe for Jaffa so Teal'c hadn't been given it. The doctors thought Sam's own weak expression was likely a dampened effect caused by the naquadah in her blood, while Vala had no reaction to the therapy at all regardless of being a former host. And Jackson still held his own lack of expression against Cam after almost a year, refusing to speak of it. Obviously he felt housing Merlin's consciousness for a time should have counted for something. "Let's try getting a little closer though shall we?" He shone his light towards the balcony she was examining and she turned to him and nodded. "Jackson, Vala, can you make sure the T has enough light to attract the bad guys with, if there are any." Daniel smirked at him and Vala piped up with an 'okay' before bounding off with a light.

He climbed the stairs slowly while shining the light at their feet. Sam lit the way ahead of them. The stairs did not light up the way the reports stated Atlantis' had at Sheppard's approach. Either there was no power, or so little the place refused to use it. They reached the top and Cam placed a hand on the first console. Nothing happened. Looks like they'd need the generator in place first.

"Look, Cam!" Sam called, shining her light at a console a little ways off. There was a small light pulsing slowly and dimly on the panel. They approached it and examined the console. "Could this be a power management station which activated when you touched the other console?"

"Your guess is probably better than mine, darlin'." he joked and she chuckled. He laid a hand over the console and the display lit up, but showed nothing. Sam reached over and pressed the pulsing light and it clicked on, the display flashed for a second then displayed a rotating wireframe model and next to it what was unmistakably a power usage meter.

"Let me guess," Sam smirked ruefully, "almost out of power." He nodded and read the text flowing around the model.

"It is trying to be helpful though. That's a schematic showing a path to the nearest primary power junction." He pointed at the rotating diagram and memorised it. He could see now that the 'gate room was shaped almost like a hemisphere, and following one of the side corridors at the end, down some stairs and back around would take them to the junction located underneath the 'gate room itself.

"That's very helpful indeed. Just the place to set up the generator. Come on, Mr. Man, I need you to do the heavy lifting." She grinned at him and passed a hand across his tac vest over his stomach as she walked past him. He grinned.

"Yes, ma'am." He followed her back down and picked up the generator on its shoulder straps and looped it over his head. Sam picked up several conductive cables and looped them over her shoulder, and handed over a power management unit case for him to carry by hand, before grabbing a couple of the light stands and looping a carrying strap around them and over her other shoulder. She lifted her P90 and started for the corridor that was indicated on the map. One side of it curved up overhead and was made of the same glossy material as the walls around the 'gate. The other looked more like a regular corridor wall with doors and passages branching off. "Alright guys, Sam and I are off to find the light switch. Jackson, Vala, can you set up the transport area just in case. T-man, watch out for grues."

"This is not a maze of twisty little passages, all alike, Colonel Mitchell." Teal'c said from his position at the top of the large ramp. Sam laughed out loud and looked at Cam in amazement.

"Wrong game, big guy." Cam grinned at the Jaffa warrior who was sporting a very subtle smirk.

"When did you play Zork, Mitchell?" asked Daniel from where he was gathering the stanchions for the transport beacon.

"I think the question is when did Teal'c play ADVENT, Daniel." Sam replied for him as they went further into the corridor out of earshot. Cam flicked his radio on.

"Use the radio to contact us if anything happens there." He flicked his comm off once more just as Vala's voice piped into his ear.

"You and Sam better not be thinking of doing anything naughty all on your own, Cameron." He grinned at Sam's shocked exclamation.

"Vala!" She stared at him wide-eyed and then grinned, shaking her head. She slowed slightly into step with him, sweeping the light of her P90 across the floor and indicating the direction they should follow. "Were you thinking of doing something naughty?" she teased him.

"My word, Colonel Carter, you shock me!" He let his jaw drop and listened to the peals of her laughter before chuckling himself. They turned a corner and followed it down for a few meters before finding a set of stairs leading down. "I was actually wondering what you thought of what Landry said to you." She looked at him for several moments and one corner of her mouth lifted in a wry smile.

"My guess is he's been waiting for us to... you know. He's been expecting it since it became clear we were remembering our time on Odyssey." she began and he nodded slowly. "He pretty much admitted that if it were up to him and General O'Neill nothing would happen to us if we did make it official, but things being the way they are, one of us, probably me, will have to not be in the Air Force." She glanced his way and he tried to convey just how much he hated the idea of her having to give up her Air Force career. "I know, sweetie, but it can't be you. Remember what Daniel said in the alternate timeline. Your skills, as varied and exceptional as they are," she laid a hand on his arm and rubbed it up and down, "are not unique. Mine on the other hand..." He sighed and groused under his breath. He understood the need for frat regs. He agreed with them for the most part. He just felt... they didn't apply in their case. It was such a stupid idea when he thought about it, but he was sure he and Sam would never let their feelings get in the way of the job.

"Sam, you're an amazing officer," he glanced her way as she looked at him in turn, "I want you, so help me I do, that's why I asked you to marry me, but..." She laid the tips of her thinly-gloved fingers over his face mask above his lips and he quieted, looking into her eyes as she stopped them in the middle of the corridor, lowering her P90 so all he could see was her face floating before him.

"Do you love me, Cameron?" she asked softly, her eyes blazing in the illumination of her mask. The total darkness around them concentrated all his focus on those cerulean pools boring in to his soul.

"With every beat of my heart, Sam." he replied quietly, but with an edge of steel in his voice. She leaned into him and pressed her face mask against his.

"Then I want us to be together, sooner rather than later. I won't make the same mistakes again, _especially_ not with you." If his voice held steel, her gaze held fire, he nodded inside his mask. She pulled away and they resumed their walk towards the primary power junction under the 'gate room.

"What about the IOA? If you're a civilian contractor, won't they have a say in your hiring and posting?" The IOA was constantly trying to assign Sam elsewhere, Atlantis, Area 51, every new BC-304 off the line seemed to have her name pencilled in as commander until she declined.

"I trust Jack, Cam." She didn't often call the General by his given name. Only when she was talking about him as a man and not an officer. "General Landry made it sound as if I would be under contract to the Air Force, most likely under General O'Neill's office specifically. Not the IOA. I would go directly to the SGC, with specific clauses in my contract to guarantee my position. Nothing the IOA can do about it." Cam grunted, still not pleased.

"You deserve stars on your shoulders, Sam." he gave voice to his greatest fear. That loving him would end her career before she'd ascended to where she truly deserved to be. She turned to look at him again as they stopped in the corridor outside the room marked on the map earlier.

"I can always come back from retirement, Cam. General O'Neill did. More than once." She raised a hand and touched the skin of his neck above the upturned collar of his jacket. She would feel how cold he was, they all were in this place, and her gloved fingers wouldn't be the same as her touching him for real, but it was obvious she needed the contact to prove to him she was ready to accept what they were talking about. "I'll get my stars. Some day. When SG-1 doesn't need us anymore." He looked at her for several long breaths, his eyes fierce and shining. The muscles in his jaw twitched every time he clenched it in his frustration at the unfairness of everything, but she was right. This was the only way. He sighed deeply and nodded once slowly. "I love you, Cameron, I want to be able to tell the world." He couldn't help the smile which crossed his lips and the colour which rose in his cheeks even in the cold. "Now let's get the power and air on so I can kiss you properly!" She turned and walked into the room, indicating a spot by a raised console against the wall for him to lay down the generator and computer. He did so and let her get to work, setting up some of the portable lights around the small space she was interested in.

Raising up his P90 he scanned the room. It was rather large, and as such, extra dark, as the light from his flashlight was attenuated more by the distance. He saw a faint dim light and moved his P90 towards it, the wall opposite them fell away into an angled bank of machinery with uneven grooves and raised surfaces. The bank tapered off from the wall and he could see that the reason for it was the arrangement of raised roundels on the bank. Three overlapping triangles sharing a common corner in the center of the bank. Each corner of each triangle held a roundel, two on the outside of the arrangement and they all shared the third corner's roundel for a total of seven. The faint dim light he'd spotted earlier came from this shared roundel and he examined it. It was a translucent cover, under which he could see the unmistakable sight of a ZPM, the source of the dim light.

"Sam, this place runs on ZPMs. Seven of them at least." He examined the other roundels, finding nothing inside them. "This central one seems to be the source of what little power this place has."

"It must have been running for millions of years." Sam posited from her position by the console, watching the computer boot up and sorting through her conductive cabling. "Time to give it a little help I think." She smiled at him. He looked around some more, finding another dim light on a console by the side wall, it was pulsing. This reminded him of the console in the 'gate room.

"Sam, check this out. It's like the other console." He motioned her over and she came to stand next to him. He touched the console, then pressed the button as they had done previously. A panel on the wall above the console slid away as a display lit up on its face. "Mary and Joseph!" He read the display. Not believing what it said.

"Holy Hannah!" cried Sam and pointed past him to the space behind the panel. He looked up and what he read on the display was confirmed by his own eyes. Several cubby holes inset into the wall held ZPMs standing on their ends. "Maybe we won't need the generator." She quickly reached for one and pulled it out of its space, he let his P90 drop to his chest and grabbed one in each hand and followed her back to the bank in the back wall. He lay the ZPMs he carried down on the floor and lay a hand on the bank, two discs lit up on either side of the lower triangle cluster. He lay his hands on them and remembered what Sheppard had once told him about interfacing with Atlantis' and Asuras' tech. Except this was different from the description. He heard a voice, asking him what he'd like to do, it was speaking in Ancient, no, Alteran. He asked it for a good arrangement for three extra Potentia and three of the roundels slid aside and small containment harnesses slid out of their recesses. Sam laughed giddily. "Cam, this is amazing!" She began slipping the ZPMs they'd brought into place and he ordered the harnesses to re-insert themselves. The roundels slid over them when they were done and each of the three new ZPMs glowed brightly. Sam laughed again. The voice asked him if he wished to initialise primary systems and he confirmed it and lights began coming on everywhere, he could feel it in his head, he heard the voices of his teammates coming over the radio declaring consoles were lighting up all around them and lights were coming on all the way down the corridors leading out of the room. Then the voice offered to manage the re-activation of the life support systems in stages centered on the 'gate room and he again agreed, asking only for it to wait for him to activate the command from the 'gate room power management console. The voice acquiesced and quieted. He pulled back and shook his head. "What's wrong, Cam?"

"The voice... the... this place... talked to me. Selenis." He turned to her and broke out into a grin. "Come on, darlin'. Life support will be reactivated in stages. 'Gate room first." He grabbed her hand and they jogged back the way they'd come. He tapped the comm button over his ear. "Guys, you won't believe it, but we found a cache of ZPMs." He was right, Daniel and Vala called him a liar. Sam had to confirm it for them, he grinned at her. "We're heading back to the 'gate room. It'll be sealed so that life support can be quickly initialised for it before it is restored to the rest of the base."

"Oh, my God, guys, this display is showing a schematic of the facility." Daniel's voice sounded slightly broken over the radio. Sam touched her comm quickly.

"What's wrong, Daniel?" Sam's concerned gaze found his and they quickened their pace.

"This is no moon, Colonel Carter. It is a space station." came Teal'c's reply. They heard Vala's nervous, disbelieving laughter and they started running. They soon reached the 'gate room and the difference was astonishing. Consoles were lit up everywhere with holographic displays wrapping around them, and light was shining and reflecting off the glossy surfaces of the walls. Daniel, Vala and Teal'c were clustered around a console up on the left hand side balcony which Cameron and Sam had climbed previously, staring at the display in disbelief, their shocked faces clear even through the hologram the Air Force officers saw them through.

"This can't be right! This can't be right, Sam!" Daniel sounded very distressed and they took the stairs at a dead run, reaching the console together and crowding around the display. It showed a sphere, the Moon, rotating on the vertical axis. From the southern hemisphere coordinates they'd ascertained by way of scans from the Apollo to be the base's location, a network of shafts and blocks and spaces of various sizes and shapes drove upwards like a spike into the core of the Moon itself, where a large sphere nestled. Cam read the text accompanying the display and blanched, cursing softly. This place wasn't just huge. It was monstrous. And like all monsters it was frightening.

"What is it? Cam? What does it say?" Sam looked at him desperately, she was probably going to demand lessons in Alteran soon. He pointed to the sphere in the center and traced the line to its description.

"Gravitic displacement engine." he translated. Sam covered her mouth and nearly stumbled backwards away from the console. Only Teal'c kept her upright. "Don't worry, Sam, I swear I am not going near anything with the words 'propulsion controls' written on it." Vala laughed again, this time more manically.

"That's not funny, Cameron! _This_ is _not_ funny!" she cried, her hand trembling slightly as she held it up to her forehead. "No wonder this place has a nine symbol address." Sam breathed and leaned heavily against the console. Cam turned back to the power management console and started inputting the sequence that would seal off the 'gate room and re-establish life support functions. Force fields came up in front of the large ramp and the corridors leading off at the end of the room and doors slid shut sealing the corridors. An iris like seal scythed in from the arch over the ramp to seal it away as well. As it closed Cam could see jumpers sitting on platforms. They could hear the sounds of air circulators coming on and a panel behind him lit up, showing statistics and diagnostics on the units, they were all in the green, indicating a countdown of around an hour for the atmosphere to reach 'Terran optimum' as he translated. Another console caught his eye and he read over the display, if this was correct the glossy walls of the 'gate room he was currently facing weren't just walls. He pressed some controls and the glossiness faded as the walls shimmered and became translucent. Everyone turned and cried out at the sight before them. The inside of a vast hangar deck, at least five kilometers wide, stretched away and below where they stood, in what he now realised was a bubble, a blister on the side of a cliff. Spotlights dotted the deck of the hangar, shining up and illuminating the dark space and the things within. Below him he saw ranks of puddle jumpers on a raised platform which jutted out from the wall under the 'gate room. Beyond that, resting on articulated landing legs was the vast bulk of a massive space ship, taking up only one of the several bays lining the curved wall stretching away to his left. "Holy Hannah!" Sam breathed as she stood next to him. "This is a space port."

"It's more than that!" cried Daniel pointing away to their right, they all turned to look at what seemed to be a half-completed ship, of the same design as the one below them, laying in a cradle. "It's a shipyard." A space port and shipyard needed a way to get ships in and out, he searched the controls and sure enough there it was, he pointed at the panel.

"This controls the bay doors." He looked to Sam when she grabbed his hand and he grinned. "Wasn't going to, darlin'." She shook her head with a smirk. He pointed above their heads and sure enough they could see a vast circular depression, lit by floodlights around its circumference which housed a sealed iris half the diameter of the entire deck. Vala had walked down the stairs and now stood in the space behind the 'gate between the two sets of stairs. She gazed across the hangar deck and spoke almost reverently.

"Guys, look at the opposite end of the hangar." They all did, walking along the curved view platform and down the steps to stand by the raven haired former smuggler. What they saw sent chills down their spines. Memories came unbidden to all of them as their eyes traced along the the curved, twisting edges of a ring nearly a mile across, standing upright a hundred meters from the far wall of the hangar, lit from below by several intense lances of pure white light. The Supergate rose from its moorings in a recessed gouge in the deck and was held tightly overhead by reinforced stanchions. "Look at the size of that thing."

* * *

To be continued in 'Under the Silent Stars'


End file.
